Carbon Stars PTOE

Go outside tonight and look up at the stars. Notice the colors of the stars. Not all of them glow in a yellow color, they can also be red, blue or green. Look closely.....do you see any red ones? Stars that are extremely red in color are known as Carbon Stars. Carbon stars contain more carbon than oxygen in their atmosphere; the carbon and oxygen mix together and make carbon dioxide which causes the red glow.

Making Carbon Dioxide Stars

Here is a fizzy, fun experiment involving carbon dioxide. Imagine it's a Carbon Star.......

Whatcha need: cooking oil, water, glass jar, food coloing, and effervescent tablets

Fill your jar half way with oil.

Add an almost equal amount of water, but you don't want to fill the jar to the top or a huge mess will occur. Watch the water settle to the bottom of the jar.

Add 4-6 drops of food coloring. Watch the color float to the bottom of the oil, then break through the oil and sink to the bottom of the jar through the water.

Now for the coolest part, the part that puts the fizz (carbon dioxide) into the fun, drop an effervescent tablet into the jar and watch the carbon dioxide do some magical things..........

Originally, I wanted to show you photos of the red jar to represent the Carbon Star, but the blue photos turned out so cool! Oh, and by the way, this is also a great color mixing experiment! Check out more fun PTOE activites by having a look at the sidebar.