A star is an astronomical object consisting of a glowing ball of plasma held together by its own gravity.

The

nearest star to the Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their great

distances from the Earth make them fixed points of light. The most visible stars are classified into

constellations and stars, and many of the brighter stars have names of their own. Astronomers have

compiled star catalogs that identify known stars and provide standardized star names. There are an

estimated 1022-1024 stars in the observable universe. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the

naked eye—all in the Milky Way galaxy.[1]