• Question: are stars fire in space about to explode?

    Asked by boo to Adam, Deborah, Matt on 22 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Adam Hargreaves

      Adam Hargreaves answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      Stars are massive balls of gas that are burning yes. Some stars eventually burn out the gas in their centre, and when that happens one of two things can happen, either they can start to expand massively or they can go supernova and explode. Luckily for us our Sun which is a star is only moderately old, and scientists reckon it has 5 billion years left (so we’re all fine!). It also isn’t big enough to go supernova, so it won’t explode.

    • Photo: Matthew Lee

      Matthew Lee answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      Theyre hotter than fire! Stars are massive massive objects made of gas (mostly hydrogen), but because they are so massive and have a huge gravity the gas doesnt escape into space and instead it gets so so hot that it becomes a plasma. So stars are actually burning balls of plasma! Plasma is one of the four states of matter, the others are solids, liquids, gases. Scientists are trying to harness plasma balls to make nuclear energy – look up the Tokomak reactor!

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