Do you ever wonder what’s out there in the sky?
constellation,
As citizens of the Earth, we were taught by our parents and teacher that those twinkling lights in the night sky are all stars. As children, we wonder at night and stared; sometimes we wonder what’s really out there or what those lights look like up close. We also think really how far are them from us or do we have the capability to go reach them sometime.
The only object that illuminates at night the most and is truly distinguishable is our Moon, Earth’s one, and only satellite. It is a magnificent view especially during a full moon whereas we travel or just sitting at home at night, we take pleasure in appreciating the beauty of the Moon.
“The Earth Moon”
We believe that all individuals have their spirit of childhood curiosity in them even as we grew up. We, as human beings, always wonder and seek discoveries to answer our mind’s questions.
Besides from the Moon, the most distinguishable objects in our night sky are a combination of planets, stars, and comets. If you have no proper equipment or knowledge of what are you looking at, then maybe you would draw a conclusion that they are all stars. You might even think that a passing comet is maybe an alien spacecraft that passes by Earth. The thing is, you can distinguish most of them simply by looking at them.
“Comet passes by Earth”
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
How I wonder what you are.”
When you were a kid, you might have heard, or even sang this nursery rhyme during your kindergarten years. The rhyme itself is already telling you how stars look like from an Earthling’s perspective. Stars twinkle, well, in a sense. As the light from the star reaches Earth, the winds and different temperatures and densities of the atmosphere affects the starlight. This causes a change in the star’s brightness and position, which makes it look like it “twinkles”. This only happens when we are too far away from the star. Our Sun is a star, and it does not appear to twinkle. And no, they do not look like the five-pointed stars you draw when you were a kid. They are round in shape.
“Our Sun”
The next type of object that we see in the night sky are the planets. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, along with our home planet Earth, make up the 9 planets of the Solar System. Unlike stars, planets usually do not twinkle. They shine more steadily because they are closer to Earth than stars, so they don’t appear like pinpoints but rather like disks in our sky.
“Jupiter (left) compared to the Moon (right) during nighttime.”
Aside from these, there are a lot more that is out there. These are just the most common and easily spotted objects in our night sky. Some objects like nebulae and galaxies are so faint that you would need proper equipment and a lot of time just to get a clear image of them. Also, what we see at night barely scratched the surface of the whole thing. The universe maybe is as big as our Sun to a single electron. And it is basically expanding, so it’s up to you to imagine how big it is and how many stars, galaxies, comets, planets, or even aliens are in existence at this very moment that you are reading it.
