Draft:Outline of stars

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to stars:

A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated 10²² to 10²⁴ stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye—all within the Milky Way galaxy.

What type of thing are stars?

Stars can be described as all of the following:

American Astronomical Society - Major organization of professional astronomers in North America
European Space Agency - Intergovernmental organization dedicated to space exploration, including stellar research
European Southern Observatory - Intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics - Research institute combining the resources of Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution
International Astronomical Union - Global association of professional astronomers, including those who study stars
W. M. Keck Observatory - Astronomical observatory in Hawaii with two of the largest optical telescopes in the world
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy - German research institute focusing on stellar and planetary astronomy
NASA Exoplanet Science Institute - Research center dedicated to the study of exoplanets and their host stars
National Optical Astronomy Observatory - US national center for ground-based night-time astronomy
National Radio Astronomy Observatory - Federally funded research and development center for radio astronomy in the US
Royal Astronomical Society - UK-based learned society for astronomy and astrophysics
SETI Institute - Organization dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, including studying stars
Space Telescope Science Institute - Science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope and other space observatories

Kaler, James. "Portraits of Stars and their Constellations". University of Illinois. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
"Query star by identifier, coordinates or reference code". SIMBAD. Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
"How To Decipher Classification Codes". Astronomical Society of South Australia. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
Prialnick, Dina; et al. (2001). "Stars: Stellar Atmospheres, Structure, & Evolution". University of St. Andrews. Retrieved 2010-08-20.