What characteristics do you think a star need to have for it to support life on one of its planets?
Cite at least 3 differences here:
Draw an initial model of a star birth, star life, and star death.
What is happening?
Is this a star death or a star birth?
In 1990, NASA launched the powerful Hubble telescope into space. Since then it has recorded images and collected data that has revolutionized our understanding of stars and the cosmos in general. The image to the right is of the heart of a giant star cluster known as Omega Centauri. A collection of nearly 10 million stars in all, it’s the largest of about 150 star clusters in the Milky Way. Examine the image and light spectra of several stars in the cluster closely, then respond to the questions that follow.


Write 2-3 observations of the image in the space below.
How many different types of colors do you see in these stars?
Why would these stars give off different colors [hint: EMS]?
What makes our Sun "good" for supporting life?
Why doesn't Pluto have life (that we know of..)? What about Mercury? Venus? Mars?
What questions do you have about stars for our Driving Question Board (that we will hopefully answer in this unit)? Write at least 3!
Label which ones would be FARTHER away from Earth and which ones would be CLOSER to Earth (if looking for a telescope)
What could explain the differences in the stars you observed?