Magic Belles

Did you know that just like people and animals, stars are born and they grow old? Star Belle tells you all about one of the most amazing special wonders in the galaxy - how stars are born!

• Stars are born inside big clouds of gas and dust called nebulae, like the one shown above.
• Nebulae are made from the leftover gases and dust from stars that have already collapsed or exploded.
• The gas inside a nebula starts to spin and get hotter and hotter and turns into a baby star called a protostar.
• When it reaches 15 million degrees Celsius, it shrinks and gets brighter and becomes a proper star! All of this can take millions of years to happen.
• When lots of stars are born in clouds like this, it is known as a stellar nursery - cute! Star Belle loves to look at these newborn stars through a special infrared telescope!
• Clusters of protostars leave the nursery and the hot gases they leave behind help to form even more new stars! The cycle continues like this so that new stars are being born all the time.
• Once a star is born, it will twinkle and shine for millions of years – so you can make lots of wishes.

Parent Note: The Orion Nebula is one of the brightest in the sky and is the only nebula that’s visible to the naked eye. See if you can spot it with your little one in the night sky – it’s just south of the famous Orion’s Belt constellation.

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about how baby stars are born - the Magic Belles love how they make the sky twinkle. Happy star-gazing this week, with lots of love from your fairy friends in Bellevue xxx