How Stars Are Made CBeebies Stargazing

Soon, starlight will scatter through the dark.

So, let's all look up at Stargazing Park.

Hello, stargazers.

Last night, we found out about astronaut Tim Peake's

exciting mission to the International Space Station.

We're joining in with Tim's mission, too, aren't we, stargazers?

-ALL:

-Yes!

We're wearing mission patches, just like Tim's.

You can download one from the CBeebies website.

Inside the International Space Station, Tim will be finding out more

about space, and so can we right now. All we have to do is...

look up!

MUSIC: Stargazing by Barrie Bignold

# When the night falls

# Maggie helps us see wonders of the stars above us all

# Turn the lights low, grab a cosy rug, wrap up warm and snug

# Here we go

# We're going stargazing

# Gaze at stars shining bright

# We're going stargazing

# Spot a zooming satellite

# We're going stargazing

# Glimpse the moon and the planets above

# We're going stargazing

# So just look up, look up, look up. #

Come and join us underneath the stars.

-Hello, stargazers.

-ALL:

-Hi, Maggie.

Are you all wrapped up nice and warm?

-ALL:

-Yes.

-I've got some gloves.

-I've got a blanket.

It is rather chilly tonight, isn't it Maggie?

Yes, Chris, that's because there aren't many clouds.

The clouds act like a big fluffy blanket, keeping the earth warm,

and when there aren't many clouds, it feels a lot chillier.

But when we don't have clouds, we can see more stars!

With not a cloud in sight, we can see the stars shine bright.

Who else is looking up tonight?

It's Cat!

Hi, Chris. Hi, stargazers. We've been wrapped up warm

-to go stargazing too, haven't we?

-ALL:

-Yes.

In fact, we've been wrapped up warm all day because we've been somewhere

-really chilly. Where have we been?

-ALL:

-Ice-skating!

And while we were there, we got a really good view of a star.

Come back later and find out what we saw.

Sounds exciting, Cat. See you later!

Now, have you still got a good view of the stars, stargazers?

-ALL:

-Yes.

There are lots and lots.

They're actually like little dots, but they're really, really far away!

That's right. The stars are really, really far away,

so they look really tiny from down here on earth.

In fact, lots of them are even bigger than our sun.

How are stars made?

Oh, now that is a good question, Emily.

Maggie, how are beautiful, gigantic stars actually made?

Well, I've got a good way of showing you and it will warm you up, too.

Follow me to the cafe.

A star is made in a very, very, very cold place.

It's made in a dark cloud of gas and dust, like this one.

Let's make our own cloud of dust and gas, and we can be the dust.

This cloud is enormous!

Let's spread out!

Ooh, it's a bit chilly in the cafe tonight!

-How does everybody else feel?

-ALL:

-Cold!

Well, don't worry, you won't be cold for long.

Bits of dust - start walking towards each other.

When a star is formed, gravity slowly makes the bits of dust

and gas move towards each other and stick together.

So, find another bit of dust, and give it a hug.

-How do you feel now?

-ALL:

-Warm!

Look at these amazing pictures of enormous clumps of gas and dust

sticking together to make a new star.

As they stick together, they get warmer and warmer.

But this takes millions and millions of years.

But I'm so chilly! I can't stay cold for millions of years!

Don't worry, Chris. I've got a plan.

Eventually, all the bits of dust and gas fall together

to form one giant clump, so...

-ALL:

-Group hug!

Oh, I am definitely warmer now. How are you feeling, stargazers?

-ALL:

-Warm!

We're not a spread out cloud of dust and gas any more.

-We're a tightly packed clump.

-All huddled together.

Let's huddle even tighter.

Whoa!

-How do you feel now?

-ALL:

-Really warm!

As the clump of dust and gas gets more and more tightly packed,

it gets hotter and hotter, and then suddenly...

-ALL:

-A star!

The middle of the clump gets so hot that it sets alight

and a baby star is born!

So, a star is made from a ginormous cloud of dust and gas.

Gravity pulls the dust and gas together into a tightly-packed clump

until the middle gets so hot, it becomes a...

-ALL:

-..star!

Hi, stargazers. When I blast off in a rocket, it will only take me

a few hours to get to the International Space Station.

Other spacecraft have been travelling for years and years

exploring space.

The Voyager mission has been travelling through space

for nearly 40 years.

That's nearly as old as me!

It's taken pictures of lots of planets

and taught us lots about our solar system.

Right now, it's just going out of the solar system.

But if it were to go to our next nearest star,

it would take thousands of years to get there.

Wow, all those stars up there are a long way away, aren't they, Maggie?

Yes, they are, but there's lots of ways to find out more about them.

Who'd like to see some more stars being born?

-ALL:

-Me!

Well, earlier, I sent Robert the robot on a very special mission.

Robert, over to you.

Very happy to be of assistance, Maggie. It's Robert the robot here

and I'm about to meet a very clever space scientist.

-HE LAUGHS EXCITEDLY

-I can't wait! I can't wait!

I'm going to meet a real life space scientist!

Hello, Robert.

Well, hello, Tim. I did not see you there.

Everybody, this is Tim, and he is a real life space scientist

and he's very clever, you know. Now, Tim, please could you show us

how stars are born.

-I certainly can, and we're going to do that just over here.

-Oh, oh.

-ROBERT GASPS

-Wow!

-So, what is all this?

-This is the desk from which we control

that giant telescope out there.

-HE GASPS

-And it's with that giant telescope,

-that we can actually see stars being born.

-We can, yeah.

-Have you heard of the constellation of Orion?

-Oh, yes, I have, yes.

Orion looks like a man strolling through the night sky.

Yeah, and if you look below the belt of Orion, you can see

-the Orion Nebula.

-Oh, yes.

-This is a photograph of it.

It's a cloud of gas and dust. And, if we use this telescope

to zoom right into the middle of that cloud of dust, what we see

-are these young stars. These stars have just been born.

-So, those

young stars are in the middle of that massive cloud of gas and dust?

They've been made from the dust, all sticking together, to make the star.

Hold your radio waves. So, are you trying to tell me

that stars are born out of gas and, my old foe, dust?

They definitely are. It's not just the stars. Around the stars,

what's left behind after the star's been made, is a disc of dust

and inside that the planets are being made.

HE GASPS

So, let me get this straight, the very planet that we are stood on now

-is actually formed out of dust?

-It certainly is.

Well, I never knew dust could be so useful.

-HE GASPS

-Tim, if I took my duster and shook

it out into space, do you think we could make a new star?

You'd need a lot more dust than that, Robert.

Oh, Timothy, you don't know me at all. I know dusting.

Come here, let me show you.

So, when a star is made, the leftover dust spins around that star

and makes...

-ALL:

-..planets!

I wonder what Kat and her stargazers found out

when they took a closer look at a star.

Ice-skaters!

Well, yes! And they're going to show us what happens when a star is born.

-Who can remember what stars are made from?

-ALL:

-Dust!

Yes, they are. Oh, the bits of dust are on the move!

-They look like a giant clump of dust.

-You're right.

And they're getting hotter and hotter!

-It's a star.

-Yes, it is a star!

What's happening to the rest of the dust?

It's spinning around the star.

Look, it's a planet!

That planet looks like it's got something orbiting it.

-What could it be?

-A moon.

A comet!

Look at its icy tail.

It looks like it's zooming through space.

Can you think of anything else that zooms through space?

Asteroids!

Giant rocks zooming through space.

WHOOSH

Who knows what smaller bits of rock in space are called?

Meteoroids.

I think I know some stargazers who would make perfect meteoroids.

-What do you reckon, stargazers?

-ALL:

-Yeah!

Come on!

'A baby star shines in the dark of space.

'And the leftover dust doesn't go to waste.

'It makes planets and moons,

'and other things too,

'like comets...

-'and asteroids...'

-WHOOSH

and meteoroids...

That's you!

Well done, ice-skating meteoroids!

What a busy night sky.

OWL HOOTS

It's amazing to think that so many of those faraway stars

have got planets, comets and asteroids spinning around them!

All we need to do is look closely for them.

Let's get cosy underneath the faraway stars

for a Starlight Story.

# Starlight scattered through the dark

# Painting stories for us all

# Gather underneath the stars

# And hear their wonders told

# Looking up into the dark

# The night is yours and it is mine

# Looking up into the dark

# The dark upon us all

# Upon us all, the stars will shine

# Upon us all, the stars will shine. #

Look up there!

-ALL:

-Canis Major - the Big Dog.

Canis Major, the Big Dog, wished to skate on ice.

He dreamt of doing fantastic tricks,

like gliding fast and catching sticks.

But when the day came to try his skates on,

before he was ready, the skates - they were gone!

Over the ice, away the dog flew. His paws got chilly

and his nose turned blue!

But then, in slid some penguins in a black and white huddle,

and swept the dog up in a cosy cuddle.

They warmed him up as they squeezed him tight.

His paws thawed out and his nose glowed bright!

Now, Canis Major is a skating star!

The crowds come to watch from near and far

as Canis Major performs his tricks,

like gliding fast and catching sticks!

And the Big Dog's rather good on skates...

thanks to the penguins, his skating mates.

-Thanks for helping us look at the stars tonight, Maggie.

-My pleasure.

We'll see you tomorrow for some more dustgazing. I mean, stargazing!

See you tomorrow, bye-bye!

-ALL:

-Bye!