Vicki Rivers, age 13, of Fort Grant, Ariz., for her question:

DO STARS FORM INTO SHAPES?

When we draw pictures of stars, we often show them with five, six, seven or eight points. And each star in the U.S. Flag has five points.

Stars in the sky, however, are round balls of gas, like our sun. They do not have sharp edges or points. Tradition of many years has made our drawing concept of stars much different than they actually are.

If you were to look at stars through a telescope, you'd find that they look very much like a point of light. Depending on their temperatures, they may appear to be of different colors, however. They come in white, yellow, blue, green and even rose.