Top 5 Facts: Stars
1) Black dwarf
It takes 10 trillion years for a white dwarf to cool off entirely. Our galaxy isn’t even old enough for a black dwarf to physically exist yet, but it lies in our Sun’s future.
2) Closing the curtains
The universe hides the birth of stars from us behind a curtain of dust. Only here are conditions cool enough for the dust and gas to condense and fire-up into new stars.
3) We’re made of stardust
Every single element that is in the periodic table was created via fusion processes deep inside the cores of stars, or indeed recycled by supernovae.
4) Nova is new
While the death of a star via supernovae is violent, it’s all part of the circle of life. New star-forming regions form as a result and sow new seeds across our galaxy.
5) Very heavy metal
Between nine and 12 miles across, neutron stars are so incredibly dense that just a teaspoonful of its material weighs as much as a billion tons.
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How many stars are there in the universe?
