The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to stars:

A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated 10²² to 10²⁴ stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye—all within the Milky Way galaxy.

What type of thing are stars?

Stars can be described as all of the following:

Types of stars

Stellar classifications

Types of stars, by luminosity

Types of stars, by spectral classification

Spectral classifications

Fields that study stars

• Astronomy
  • Astronomical spectroscopy
  • Astrophysics
  • Observational astronomy

History of stars

History of stars

Stellar evolution

Star-related organizations

Star-related publications

Persons involved with stars

See also

References

External links

• Kaler, James. "Portraits of Stars and their Constellations". University of Illinois. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
• "Query star by identifier, coordinates or reference code". SIMBAD. Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
• "How To Decipher Classification Codes". Astronomical Society of South Australia. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
• Prialnick, Dina; et al. (2001). "Stars: Stellar Atmospheres, Structure, & Evolution". University of St. Andrews. Retrieved 2010-08-20.