This process has been going on for something like 13 billion years and our solar system is thought to have formed only 4. When that happens to really big stars you can get some really, really spectacular supernovas,' Ashley says. We are always keen to hear from people and like-minded organisations who are interested in working with us. For many, the Natural History Museum is a place that inspires learning, gives purpose and provides hope.

Things that are made at high temperatures in the atmosphere of stars are resistant to acid and therefore left behind. The other way to study the life cycle of stars is by finding samples of cosmic dust and observing them through an electron microscope. Mae’r llyfr rhagorol hwn yn cyflwyno atebion Dr Maggie i rai cwestiynau penigamp, o ‘Wnaeth rhywun yrru car ar y lleuad?This book is full of wondrous facts, questions and answers about space, spacecrafts and galaxies far, far away. X-rays are shown in blue, produced by superheated gases, resulting from supernova explosions and stellar winds. Captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in 2011, this image of the North America Nebula shows a cluster of young stars (about one million years old). At that point only the lightest elements existed, such as hydrogen, helium and minuscule amounts of lithium. Our volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds, but they have plenty in common too, including a willingness to give up their time to support an organisation they believe in, an interest in STEM or conservation and an enthusiasm for sharing their interest with others.

Yes, we are all made up of elements that would have been part of stars, and which could have passed through numerous stars before ending up in us…isn’t that amazing and beautiful? She is passionate about encouraging young people to pursue their “big, crazy dreams” and to answer big questions. Stars are immense objects - over 99% of the mass in our solar system is in our Sun - and gravity squeezes them. When you look at the stars through a telescope what you're seeing probably happened millions of years ago,' Ashley says.

Meanwhile, the burning inside a star creates energy which counteracts the squeeze of gravity which is why our sun is stable. Intrepid wildlife reporter Andy Seed is back with another collection of interviews for which he has risked personal safety, and gotten seriously wet, while talking to the giants of the oceans. Fill out the form below and we'll work with our scientists to answer some of them in our online magazine Discover or on our YouTube channel. The burning that takes place inside stars draws on a huge amount of fuel and creates an enormous amount of energy.

of our bodies) and lithium, which our body contains in very tiny trace amounts, originated from the Big Bang. Every year, more people are reading our articles to learn about the challenges facing the natural world. Every element was made in a star and if you combine those elements in different ways you can make species of gas, minerals, and bigger things like asteroids, and from asteroids you can start making planets and then you start to make water and other ingredients required for life and then, eventually, us. Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock (MBE) is a space scientist, celebrated STEM educator and communicator, and presenter of the long-standing BBC’s The Sky at Night. Mae Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock yn wyddonydd gofod go iawn ac mae’n frwd dros rannu rhyfeddodau’r gofod a gwyddoniaeth.No matter the size, every gift to the Museum is critical to our 300 scientists' work in understanding and protecting the natural world. From whether there are rainbows on other planets to what dinner tastes like on the International Space Station, this book is packed full of fabulous facts, mind-blowing insights and engaging explanations from the renowned space scientist. Pollution has caused toxic air in our cities, and farming and logging have wreaked havoc on our forests. On the periodic table, each element is distinguished by its atomic number, which describes the number of protons in the nuclei of its atoms.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a real-life space scientist (you may have seen her on the TV) with a passion for sharing the wonders of space and science. We were fortunate to meet Dr Maggie and listen to her talk at the beautiful Sheldonian Theatre during the Oxford Literary Festival, along with a theatre full of young people and their families. When stars die and lose their mass, all the elements that had been generated inside are swept out into space. This is the first time in Earth's history that a single species - humanity - has brought such disaster upon the natural world.

Dr Maggie has inspired and been a role model to many girls in particular, and in March ahead of International Women’s Day, was named as a Barbie Role Model for her work promoting science careers to girls. About 2,400 massive stars in the centre of the nebula produce intense radiation and powerful 'winds' of ejected material.