Our Sun is a star – it looks much larger just because it is MUCH closer to us (some other stars that appear to be just dots of light are in fact many times larger but almost unbelievably far away).
All stars “shine” because they are a huge atomic explosion giving out heat and light. All of our energy comes from the Sun (yes, even wind energy and petrol that we dig out of the ground started as heat and light from the Sun).
As to why we can only see the (other) stars at night, they are still there during the day, but the Sun is so bright it drowns them out.
Peter’s response about the stars shining from fusion power is accurate; I would just add that stars shine during the day as well (they shine all the time, in fact), but during the day the sky is so bright because of scattered and reflected sunlight that we usually can’t see the other stars at all.
Our Sun is a star – it looks much larger just because it is MUCH closer to us (some other stars that appear to be just dots of light are in fact many times larger but almost unbelievably far away).
All stars “shine” because they are a huge atomic explosion giving out heat and light. All of our energy comes from the Sun (yes, even wind energy and petrol that we dig out of the ground started as heat and light from the Sun).
As to why we can only see the (other) stars at night, they are still there during the day, but the Sun is so bright it drowns them out.
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Peter’s response about the stars shining from fusion power is accurate; I would just add that stars shine during the day as well (they shine all the time, in fact), but during the day the sky is so bright because of scattered and reflected sunlight that we usually can’t see the other stars at all.
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Peter and Kyler beat me to the punch here! 🙂
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