2. Most of the stars are binary. Many stars are born in pairs. These are binary stars, where two luminaries orbit around a common center of gravity. There are other systems with 3, 4 or even more participants. Just think what beautiful sunrises you can see on a planet in a four-star system.

3. The size of the largest suns is equal to the orbit of Saturn. Let's talk about red giants, or to be more precise, about red supergiants, against which our luminary looks very small. The red supergiant is Betelgeuse, in the constellation Orion. It is 20 times the mass of the Sun and at the same time 1000 times larger. The largest known star is VY Canis Majoris. It is 1800 times larger than our Sun and would fit in the orbit of Saturn!

4. The most massive luminaries have a very short life. As stated above, a low-mass red dwarf could burn for tens of billions of years before running out of fuel. The reverse is also true, for the most massive ones we know of. Giant luminaries can be 150 times the mass of the Sun and release a huge amount of energy. For example, one of the most massive stars we know of is Eta Carinae, located about 8,000 light years from Earth. It releases 4 million times more energy than the Sun. While our Sun can safely burn fuel for billions of years, Eta Carinae can only shine for a few million years. And astronomers expect Eta Carina to explode at any time. When it goes out, it will become the brightest object in the sky.

5. The number of stars is huge. How many stars are there in the Milky Way? You may be surprised to know that there are on the order of 200-400 billion pieces in our galaxy. Each may have planets, and on some, life is possible. There are about 500 billion galaxies in the Universe, each of which may have as many or even more than the Milky Way. Multiply these two numbers together and you will see how many there are approximately.

6. They are very, very far away. The closest to Earth (excluding the Sun) is Proxima Centauri, located 4.2 light years from Earth. In other words, it takes over 4 years for the light itself to complete the journey from Earth. If we launch the fastest spacecraft ever launched from Earth, it will take more than 70,000 years to reach it. Today, traveling between the stars is simply not possible.