• Question: do you think that stars have any importance to the world?

    Asked by cerys to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 15 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by ramz555.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      One star is definitely very important, as we wouldn’t get any energy without it.

      The other stars, not so much. They are so far away that their gravity can’t really influence us in any big way.

      People that believe in astrology make up things about particular star constellations being in certain places or lining up with planets, but there’s lots of evidence to show that this never actually means anything.

    • Photo: Catherine Rix

      Catherine Rix answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      The sun is really important to us! It’s where we get all of our energy from. We base our calendar on it, we use it to tell us what time of day it is. Without it we wouldn’t be here.

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      Stars are very important to all worlds! But to us, we really need our sun to create warmth to make the oceans liquid, and for energy to make our chemical reactions world.

      Stars are also useful for navigation! If you are ever lost, and you have a rough idea about how the stars should look, then that can help you a lot. The best example is the pole star, which doesn’t move as the earth rotates, because it is right above the north pole. Find that and follow it, and you’ll always be heading north!

    • Photo: Karen Masters

      Karen Masters answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      Well I think wondering about what the stars are are something which make us human. And it’s important for us to all remember we’re human and to be nice to each other etc.

      And the Sun is really important – without it there’d be no world.

    • Photo: Nazim Bharmal

      Nazim Bharmal answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      Well the Sun is a star that we need to know about, and so when we study other stars like it, we can get a better idea of what it will do. That is one way we can be confident that our predictions of how long the Sun will keep going for, before it swells up into a giant star, are accurate. Plus it is a stable star, not sending out very much high energy material very often (although it does, a bit!) that could disrupt the Earth’s atmosphere.

      Stars are also vital for creating the heavy elements that we are made of, as every element heavier than iron was created when a star exploded. They are vital for navigation, as even now the military funds experiments to find more accurately where the stars are so that ships can sail without GPS but still know where they are.

      I find them useful for reminding me how little the Earth really is, and how many fantastic things there are in the universe. That helps me work a little harder, knowing that it is all out there to be discovered. So they inspire us, as human beings, because they are so far away but we can still learn something about them.

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