Giant Stars and Dwarf Stars

Students compare stars from red dwarfs and white dwarfs to giants, supergiants and hypergiants, and learn how size, temperature, color and mass relate to a star's life.

Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops8 stops

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What students will see and do

Students fly from the Sun to Proxima Centauri, Barnard's Star, Sirius, Arcturus, Aldebaran, Antares and VY Canis Majoris as Aetherion compares each star's size, color and mass to the Sun. The class can pause to discuss at the Proxima, Sirius and VY Canis Majoris stops.

Learning objectives

• Compare the sizes of red dwarfs, the Sun, giants and supergiants using the Sun as a reference.
• Relate a star's color to its surface temperature.
• Explain why a star's mass determines how long it lives.
• Distinguish between a red dwarf, a white dwarf and a red giant.

NGSS connections

Stops on this journey

1. Your Measuring Stick
2. The Little Red Neighbor (discussion stop)
3. The Runaway Star
4. The Dwarf That Is Not Like the Others (discussion stop)
5. An Orange Giant
6. The Eye of the Bull
7. Rival of Mars
8. One of the Largest Stars Known (discussion stop)

Vocabulary

• red dwarf
• white dwarf
• red giant
• supergiant
• hypergiant
• mass
• fusion
• density