Difference Between Stars and Planets

Stars vs Planets

When you look up into the clear night sky, you will see a vast array of twinkling lights sprinkled across the heavens. It is an awe inspiring site today, just as it was the ancients that first began observing celestial movements thousands of years ago. Even though it is difficult to tell the difference between stars and planets with your naked eye, they are vastly different celestial bodies with different origins and functions.

Definition
Star ‘“ is huge collection of plasma and gases that are held together by gravity. A star gives off an enormous quantity of energy as light and heat because of the thermonuclear fusion that is taking place in its core.
Planet ‘“ is a celestial body that orbits around a star. It can be rocky, gaseous, or a combination of the two. It has its own field of gravity holding it together but that gravity is not strong enough to produce a thermonuclear reaction.

Formation
Star ‘“ most stars that we see are millions of light years away, and therefore we are seeing the stars as they looked millions of years ago. Since many of these observable stars are mature, we can assume that most stars are billions of years old. Stars begin with a cloud of atoms, such as hydrogen. This cloud gets denser and denser until there is enough pressure on the core to cause the nuclear reaction that creates helium from hydrogen. The star starts giving off light and heat and is technically ‘born.’
Planet ‘“ are thought to be formed at the same time as its parent star. As matter begins to collect in the dense core of the soon to be star, other smaller centers of gravity may begin to form within the stars orbit. These proto-planets will continue to grow and collide with each other until the star becomes mature. Eventually the planets as we know them form.

History of Human Discovery
Star ‘“ Man first began to make star charts in ancient Egypt, over three thousand years ago. As telescopic technology has advanced, mankind has begun to study the composition, age, distance, and characteristics of stars.
Planet ‘“ were first thought to be wandering stars because visible planets like Mars and Venus don’t hold a fixed course like the rest of the stars in the sky. During the Renaissance, Galileo and Kepler proved that the planets rotated around the sun. As the Space Age dawned, man has sent probes and robots to all the planets in our solar system.

Summary:
1.Planets are stars are both heavenly bodies mostly observable to the naked eye.
2.Stars are large collections of gas that have a nuclear reactor at their core, whereas planets can be almost as large but lack the nuclear reactor.
3.Stars are the first to form when a new solar system is being created and planets are created later within the orbit of the star.
4.Throughout history mankind has been observing both stars and planets.

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