Stars on Pitara Kids Network

Why Do Stars Twinkle?

Fri, 04 Sep 1998 21:44:16 +0000

Watching stars on a moonless night can be an quite an interesting experience. As clusters of stars take familiar forms – of a bear, a man in armor wielding a sword, millions of other stars simply twinkle. As if they were playing hide and seek with one’s eyes.

We all know that each star is actually like the sun. And the huge collection of stars on the night sky is like a collection of many, many suns. But, the sun does not twinkle, one would point out. So why do other stars twinkle?

How Will our Sun Die?

Wed, 08 May 2002 00:54:36 +0000

Everything that is born must die. Not only living beings, but inanimate objects like stars too.

The birth of a star

The universe has massive clouds of hydrogen floating around. Sometimes, these clouds come together and form very dense and huge balls of hydrogen gas. As the clouds come close, their temperature increases. This is called a proto-star (original star).

The increase in temperature triggers off nuclear reactions at the core of the star. Nuclear reactions inside the star occur when the nucleus of two hydrogen atoms fuse to produce a helium atom. This reaction which is actually the same as that inside a hydrogen bomb, release huge amounts of heat and light. This is what makes a star glow.

How are Stars Named?

Thu, 22 Aug 2002 12:47:58 +0000

Till now we have only seen roads, railway stations, airports, places etc. being named after famous people. But imagine paying money to get a star named after you. If that can happen, then anything is possible in this world!

Well, there are organisations in different parts of the world that sell names for the stars in the sky. All you have to do is – go there, fill out the long, detailed form that they give you and buy star names or name stars after someone.

How Stars Came into Being

Tue, 09 May 2000 01:01:21 +0000

This is a story about a long, long time ago.

There was once an old man who smoked tobacco.

He smoked tobacco in terracotta or clay pipes, called pikka.

This old man had three sons.

When the three sons grew up, he got them married one after the other.

How Stars Came into Being [Illustrations by Sudheer Nath]

It happened once, that the eldest son went to his wife’s parents’ house to attend a marriage.