Stars and Planets

Although stars and planets shine in the night sky, they differ from one another in many ways. In fact, most of the shinning lights in the sky are balls of fire called stars. We do not feel their heat because they are very, very far from us. Our sun is a star. The planets, on the other hand, are balls of cold gas or solid rocks, and revolve round the stars. Our Earth is a planet that goes round the star sun. Mars is another planet that revolves around the sun.  Stars  come  in  different  sizes  and  colours.  The  new  stars  are bluish-white in colour. Often their heat is so intense that they look white and are called "White Dwarfs". Then there are large stars that have burnt most of their fuel and are red in colour. They are often so big that astronauts call them "Red Giants". Like stars, planets also vary in size and colour. Our Earth is a small planet compared to Jupiter, which is a ball of gas, many hundreds of times larger than Earth. The Earth looks blue, the Mars is red, while the Jupiter is orange.