Hello, and welcome back to the Curious Kid podcast. I have a really good feeling about this episode. I feel like it's going to be out of this world.

Mail bag.

Hello, Jacob and Olivia. It's Caleb and Micah. We just listened to curious about garbage and curious about batteries while eating breakfast. We are catching up on episodes and look forward

to learning more. You make the subjects so fun. Micah is curious about stars.

We thought it would be a good follow-up to Curious About the Moon. And Caleb is curious about

soccer. We love the podcast, and thank you two are doing a great job. Thank you so much for the email, Caleb

and Micah. We are getting curious about stars this week for you. Stars you so much for the email, Caleb and Micah. We are getting curious about stars this

week for you. Stars are super duper interesting, and there is so much to know. I learned a ton about

stars doing research for this episode. Let's shoot for the stars. Daddy, I'm ready to learn.

There's a lot to learn, so let's get to it. What's the question of the week?

The question of the week is, how much larger than the sun is the largest known star?

The star we are talking about is called V.Y. Canis Majoris, and it is the largest known star. Can you guess how much bigger it is

than the sun? Why are we comparing stars to the sun anyway? Because the sun is a star, the

closest star to Earth. That's right. The sun is a star, and it is the center of our solar system.

If it's the closest star to Earth, it's got to be pretty close.

How far from the Earth is the sun?

The sun is about 93 million miles away from Earth.

That is insane. It is so far away.

And all of the other stars are even further away. Yet we are able to see them on a clear night. And that's amazing.

Stars are giant spheres that are made of very hot gases. Those super hot gases are hydrogen and helium. Stars burn hydrogen to form helium. That process is called nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is what makes stars so bright and so hot. Let's learn a bit about the

life cycle of a star.

Stars are born from molecular clouds, also called nebula,

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