What are stars, and why can we only see them at night?
Giants Playing Shy
What are stars, and why can we only see them at night?
Look up on a clear night and the sky is freckled with tiny silver lights. They look small and shy, almost delicate. But here's the twist: every one of those dots is a roaring, furious ball of fire bigger than anything you can imagine. Stars are giants pretending to be sparkles.
So what exactly IS a star? Picture an enormous ball of hot gas — mostly hydrogen, the simplest, lightest stuff in the universe. There's so much of it, and it's squeezed so tightly, that the very center gets crushed into something extraordinary. A star is basically a colossal furnace floating in space.
