What do the stars consist of?

Each of us at least once, but admired the beautiful night sky, strewn with many stars. Have you ever thought about what the stars consist of, what is the secret of their eternal radiance?

What is a star, and what does it consist of?

A star is a huge celestial gas body in which thermonuclear reactions occur. The temperature on the surface of the star reaches thousands of Kelvin, and inside it is measured in millions.

Initially, the composition of the star is similar to compositioninterstellar matter. In the future, by composition, one can judge the nature of the interstellar space and those thermonuclear reactions that occur in the body of the star during its development. Knowing the chemical composition of the star, you can fairly accurately determine its age.

The heavenly body itself consists mainly of helium andhydrogen. Titanium oxides and zirconium oxides are also present in the composition of some stars, such radicals as CH, CH2, OH, C2, C3. The upper layer of the star consists mainly of hydrogen: on average, 10,000 hydrogen atoms account for about a thousand helium atoms, 5 - oxygen and less than 1 atom of some other elements.

Stars are known in which the content of somechemical elements is greatly increased. For example, there are silicon stars (with a high content of silicon), iron, carbon. In relatively young stars there is often a high content of heavy elements. In one of such celestial bodies, the molybdenum content was found, 26 times its content in the Sun. The longer the age of a star, the less is the content of elements, whose atoms have a mass greater than that of helium atoms.