Stars are gigantic balls of gas that produce light and heat through a process called nuclear fusion. They come in various sizes and colors, with the hottest stars appearing blue and the coolest appearing red.
The twinkling of stars is caused by Earth's atmosphere bending and refracting starlight as it passes through, making them appear to shimmer.
The light we see from stars often takes many years to reach us. For example, the light from the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, takes over four years to reach Earth.
When massive stars reach the end of their life cycles, they explode in a spectacular event known as a supernova. These explosions can briefly outshine entire galaxies.
The biggest star in the universe that we know of is UY Scuti. It could fit over 5 billion Suns, 7 trillion Jupiters or 7 quadrillion Earths in it.
UY Scuti is 300,000 times brighter than the Sun, but it is so far away you wouldn't know this when observing it in the night sky.
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