Sunday Science: Red Stars

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Science!

Just saying the word brings chills to the youth of today.
I mean, how can science compete with “American Idle” and other such shows.

But it wasn’t always like that.
I remember as a kid, the thing I wanted to be most was an astronaut.
That was the highest goal there was.
I was taught that you could become one, with hard work and a little bit of luck.

I want to use this section of Suzi to talk about some of the real science behind space travel and our Universe.
Suzi Quazar is science fantasy, but I think it would be fun to learn about some science facts.

Let’s look at the cover of Issue #1.
It shows our heroine drifting into a red sun.

Issue1 cover
Terror at the edge of the Universe

Very dramatic and eye catching.
But what exactly is a red sun, or more accurately a red star?

A red star can have a variety of sizes, from dwarf to super-giant.
Imagine a star much like our Sun. As this star gets older, the hydrogen fusion process in the core of the star starts to become inefficient.
This causes a series of reactions, with the result being the star expanding in size.  When our Sun reaches this stage, it’s size could increase so much that it would swallow the Earth!

If you want to learn more, I highly recommend this article on Red Stars by Fraser Cain over at Universe Today.

Learn more, do more, be more!

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