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Intro

There are around 170 known moons in our Solar System – don’t worry we are not going to cover them all tonight!  We are going
to look at some of larger moons and also some of the more interesting ones discovered to date.  It is worth noting that although
we have images of many moons, not a great deal is still known about the majority.  Information has been gathered by fly-pasts
and although we do know quite a lot about some, we are left intrigued by others as they hint at what they hold secret.  Clearly
there is much for us still to learn and I’ve no doubt some startling discoveries are still to be made here on our own doorstep.


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Moon
How do stars shine?

What makes a star shine? Its a question, more often asked of the Sun over millennia, but it
applies to stars as well. It is only relatively recently we’ve had an answer to that. How do stars shine?
How do BIG stars shine?

So last time we went through the nuclear reaction that powers the Sun. Its called the protonproton
chain (PP), and it wasn’t so hard - was it? OK there is a lot of maths and quantum
physics in the details, but hopefully you got the basics, and can now class yourself as a trainee
astrophysicist.

How do BIG stars shine
When stars go off road!

We’ve seen how stars shine, and there are at least a couple of ways they go about converting
hydrogen to helium. In the process releasing a lot of energy, which is what makes them shine.
When Stars go of road
When Stars Go Bang
I mentioned briefly last time what happens when stars die, mentioning in passing that big stars
often go off with a bang. The subject here though is the detail of what happens when stars of
with a bang.

When Stars go bang

When stars die

So we have seen how stars live, and how they can extend their lives by switching to helium, an
available but less efficient forms of fuel.
When Stars Die

 

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