HowDoWhy

If you’re ever away from the glare of city lights on a cloudless night, take a look up into the sky and marvel at the countless thousands of sparkling stars you see up there. Pick one you like and point your finger at it. Now imagine that maybe, just maybe, the star you’ve picked has a planet orbiting it and a boy on that planet is looking up into his night sky and pointing right back at you, because the Sun is really just a star! To that alien boy on that alien world orbiting that alien star, our sun is just one of a countless number of twinkling stars in the sky.

As stars go, ours isn’t particularly special. It isn’t a super-giant. It isn’t a pulsar. It doesn’t have enough mass to explode in a giant super nova when it dies. Our star is categorized as a Yellow-Dwarf and its composition is made up primarily of Hydrogen (about 74% by mass), Helium (about 24%) and trace quantities of other elements make up the remainder. It does have some things to be proud of, though. For one, it is a 3^rd generation, Population I star meaning that it likely formed as the result of an older star’s death (in the form of a super nova) and it’s solar system is, therefore, comparatively rich in heavy elements (gold, iron and other important stuff without which human technological advancement might have been a real challenge).  

Our Sun is also fairly even tempered. It throws a tantrum now and again and tosses material around the solar system, but, for the most part, the Sun has remained a calm and nurturing mother to the planetary children that circle around her. Without the relative stability of our local star, life couldn’t have formed on the Earth! And that’s the third thing our star can be proud of - it hosts a planet that harbors intelligent life. Not bad for a little yellow dwarf in an obscure arm of the galaxy.