FROSTBURG —  Our new Frostburg State University Planetarium program this month is the second program in a trilogy, introducing beginners to our Universe (February), the Stars (March) and the Planets (April).

If you missed last month’s program, there are summary sheets available in our rack at the Planetarium. Below are some selected items from our Star show.

 In the grand scheme of things, stars are important because a majority of the ordinary matter in the universe is in stars. For instance in our solar system, the sun contains 99.8 percent of the mass.

The giant planet Jupiter has less than 1/1000th as much ordinary matter as our sun. We shouldn’t forget that mighty Jupiter in our solar system outweighs all the other planets, moons, asteroids and comets put together.

 Another reason that stars are important is that they contain a vast share of the thermal energy in the universe. The Earth’s surface is kept at a reasonable average temperature, 58 F due to our sun’s radiation which averages 1370 watts/meter squared outside our atmosphere.

About 45 percent of this energy reaches our surface, warming us. This warmth is somewhat bottled up by trace gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. This trapping of heat (the Greenhouse Effect) raises our surface temperature by nearly 60 degrees F; this transforms our Earth from an ice world to an abode of countless life forms.

 A very surprising debt we owe to the stars is that they are nuclear furnaces, building heavier elements in their cores. 90 percent of the ordinary mass in the universe consists of hydrogen, the simplest and lightest element.

But life on Earth relies on the combining ability of carbon, an atom that is 12 times as heavy as hydrogen. Where does this carbon come from?

 In ordinary stars such as our sun, their hot surfaces are due to hydrogen fusion, occurring deep in their cores. In this process, the net result is that four protons or hydrogen centers smash together and make helium, the second most abundant element in the universe.

Helium in stars like our sun accumulates in a central core. Our sun’s core is now about half helium. As this core shrinks, it generates added energy, increasing the rate of hydrogen fusion. This has caused our sun to increase in power by 30 percent since its formation.

Eventually the sun’s core becomes all helium and the sun swells into a giant star, toasting the Earth about 5 billion years from now. But the core of this giant star eventually starts to fuse helium, making carbon! In the last stages of our sun’s life, it becomes a supergiant star, blowing off carbon dust as it oscillates.

The sun’s final state is as a white dwarf, a super-dense star cinder the size of a small planet.

 Yet heavier stars run through their life cycle much more quickly. These massive stars do more nuclear “cooking,” finishing with an iron core. This leads to a gigantic star death explosion (Supernova Type II), where all the elements are hurled outward.

Even some elements heavier than iron are made, such as gold, silver and platinum. So our precious metals are relics of a heavy star blasting itself apart. So some stars die so that life may arise in an adjoining part of the galaxy.

 This morning the moon appears half full in the morning sky. You can now see the moon easily in the early hours after sunrise. You will notice that the lighted side of the moon faces the sun. The straight line on the moon’s right side is where the sun is setting on the moon.

On the moon, nights last for nearly 15 of our days (24 hours). Late Thursday night, our sun appears to cross into Pisces, the Fishes. Next Saturday night, we set our clocks an hour forward as we shift to Daylight Time.

 Today, our planetarium program is “Quick Intro to the Stars,” with free public presentations at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. in Tawes 302. These presentations will be repeated on March 21 and March 28. The Planetarium is just off the front lobby of Tawes, that faces the Compton Science Center. Near the back of Tawes is FSU’s clock tower.

Call (301) 687-7799 to request a free planetarium bookmark (with small map included) by leaving your name and mailing address.

Bob Doyle invites reader’s comments; email him at rdoyle@frostburg.edu .