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Essay Archive - Stars
Stars
A star is a large ball of hot gas, thousands to millions of kilometers
in diameter, emitting large amounts of radiant energy from nuclear
reactions in its interior. Stars differ fundamentally from planets in that
they are self-luminous, whereas planets shine by reflected sunlight. Except
for the SUN, which is the nearest star, stars appear only as points of
light, even in the largest telescopes, because of their distance.
The brightest stars have long been given names. Most of the familiar
names originated with the ancient Greeks or with later Arab astronomers; an
entire....
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