Curiosity Science Contest Response #1 - The Life of a Star! ☆☆☆

Children. They are full of questions that can just drive us nuts most of the time.

They can even pose an intriguing question that will make you doubt your own intelligence.

That is why when I saw a post by @curiousity about his contest - Introducing: Curiosity Science Contest (Rewards For Good Responses) I thought, we should try it out.

The contest is aimed at promoting science and by posting 3 pictures as clues, invites us to make a write-up about it.

I think you have a fairly good idea what these mean - The Life of a Star!

As a home schooling family, this presented us with a good opportunity to dig into the topic deeper. My eldest has this big interest in science, specifically the outer space and animals.

We started to pull out our "Learning Time" book about the Universe and see whether we can find anything about the topic.

Here's what we found out:

Stars are made up of hydrogen gas. A star is born in a big swirling cloud of gas and dust called a nebula .


This cloud will eventually shrink and form a clump which is called a protostar. The clumps will then get very hot and form a star.


Since stars are made up of gas, there will come a time when they will run out of fuel and eventually die.

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Life Cycle of a Star
Credit: NASA

The death of a star will depend on its type and size. If the star is around the size of our Sun, upon its death, it will swell up to become a red giant .It will grow smaller and smaller to become a star called a "white dwarf". After billions of years, the white dwarf will cool down and become invisible.

If a star is big and starts its life as a "Blue Supergiant" near its death it will swell up to become a red supergiant. It will end its life with a huge explosion as a supernova. A supernova will fade into a neutron or a black hole surrounded by hot gas.

I would like to believe that kids had fun while doing this. It was a commotion, but that's what makes it fun right?

After reading the book and watching some short video clips, of course apart from answers there were also some questions raised. This one sounds tough for me, so please help me answer:

"Mommy, if the white dwarf is invisible, what will happen if a rocket ship passes by it?"

I dismissed the question for some time, hoping to find answers.

What do you think?

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