BLUE STARS EXPLAINED
Take a look at the hottest stars in the galaxy, which live fast and die young
WORDS ANDREW MAY
DID YOU KNOW?
The bright-blue stars Regulus and Spica were among the 15 Behenian stars used by medieval astronomers
To the naked eye, the stars in the night sky all look very similar, the main difference between them being that some are brighter than others. But if you look more carefully, you’ll see that stars come in different colours. Most of them look white, but some are distinctly red in colour, while others are blue. A star’s colour tells us about its temperature and mass, and blue stars are the hottest and most massive of all.