Stars - The brightest and the biggest
The brightest and the biggest
Sirius, 8.6 light-years away, is the brightest star in the sky, twenty-six times brighter than the Sun, which is also a star. How was this determined? In 1912, astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868–1921) discovered that stars increase and fade in brightness over time. By studying a sequence of photographs of stars, analyzing their changes, and applying mathematical formulas, Leavitt came up with a way for astronomers to calculate the true brightness of stars.
Stars are just one part of a galaxyA large collection of stars and clusters of stars containing anywhere from a few million to a few trillion stars., which also includes gas, dust, and planets, all drawn together by gravity. The Milky Way is not the only galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy, which has about 300 trillion stars, and the Milky Way, with about 200 billion...
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