Why do stars shine: physics or chemistry?

Stars do not reflect light, as planets and their satellites do, but radiate it. And exactly and constantly. And the blinking seen on Earth may be caused by the presence of a variety of microparticles in space, which, falling into a light beam, interrupt it.

The brightest star, from the point of view of earthlings

From the school bench it is known that the Sun is a star. From our planet - this is the brightest star, and by the standards of the universe - slightly less than average and in size and brightness. A huge number of stars are larger than the Sun, but they are much smaller.

Star gradation

Divide the heavenly bodies by the size of the ancient Greek astronomers. Under the concept of "magnitude", both then and now mean the brightness of the glow of the star, and not its physical magnitude.

The stars differ also in length of radiation. According to the spectrum of waves, and indeed, it is diverse, astronomers can tell about the chemical composition of the body, temperature and even remoteness.

Scientists are arguing

For decades, controversy has continued over the question of why the stars shine. There is still no common opinion. It's hard to believe even the nuclear physicists that the reactions occurring in the stellar body can give off so much energy without stopping.

The problem of thermonuclear fusion, passing in the stars, takes scientists a very long time. Astronomers, physicists, and chemists have attempted to find out what gives rise to the eruption of thermal energy, which is accompanied by bright radiation.

Chemists believe that the light of a distant star is the consequences of an exothermic reaction. It ends with the release of a significant amount of heat. Physicists claim that in the body of a star can not pass chemical reactions. For none of them is able to go non-stop billions of years.

The answer to the question "why the stars are shining" became a little closer after Mendeleev opened the table of elements. Now, chemical reactions have been completely revised in a new way. As a result of the experiments, new radioactive elements were obtained, and the theory of radioactive decay becomes the number one version in the endless debate about the luminescence of stars.

The modern hypothesis

The light of a distant star did not allow Svente Arrhenius to "fall asleep" - a Swedish scientist. At the beginning of the last century, he turned the idea of radiation by the stars of heat, developing the concept of electrolytic dissociation. It consisted of the following. The main source of energy in the body of the star - hydrogen atoms, constantly participating in chemical reactions with each other, form helium, which is much heavier than its predecessor. The processes of transformation are due to the pressure of a gas of high density and wild for our understanding of the temperature (15 000 000 ° C).

The hypothesis has pleased many scientists. The conclusion was unequivocal: the stars in the night sky glow, because the synthesis reaction takes place inside and the energy released is more than enough. It also became clear that the hydrogen compound can go on without interruption for many billions of years in a row.

So, why do the stars shine? The energy that is released in the core is transferred to the outer gas shell and the radiation that we see is visible. Today, scientists are almost certain that the "road" of the ray from the core to the shell takes more than hundreds of thousands of years. Before the Earth, the beam from the star also goes on for a long time. If the radiation from the sun reaches the Earth in eight minutes, the stars are brighter - Proxima Centauri - almost five years, then the light of the rest can go tens and hundreds of years.

Another "why"

Why stars radiate light is now understandable. Why does it flicker? The glow coming from the star is actually even. This is due to gravity, which attracts the gas pushed out by the star back. The flicker of a star is a kind of error. The human eye sees the star through several layers of air, which is in constant motion. The stellar ray, passing through these layers, seems flickering.

As the atmosphere moves unceasingly, hot and cold air flows, passing one under the other, form turbulence. This leads to a curvature of the light beam. The brightness of the stars is also changing. The reason is the unevenness of the concentration of the ray reaching us. The stellar picture itself shifts. The blame for this phenomenon are, passing in the atmosphere, for example, gusts of wind.

Multicolored stars

In cloudless weather, the night sky pleases the eye with a bright multicolor. A rich orange color in the stars Aldebaran and Arcturus, but Antares and Betelgeuse are gently red. Sirius and Vega milky white, with a blue tint - Regulus and Spica. The famous giants - Alpha Centauri and Capella - are juicy yellow.

Why do stars shine in different ways? The color of a star depends on its internal temperature. The "coldest" ones are the red ones. On their surface only 4 000 ° C. White-blue stars with surface heating up to 30 000 ° C are considered to be the hottest.

Astronauts say that in reality the stars are light and bright, and they wink at Earthmen only ...