Star Formation
Supermassive Black Holes Grew by Consuming Gas and Entire Stars
Where do they come from, those beguiling singularities that flummox astrophysicists—and the rest of us. Sure, we understand the processes…
The Solar System Might Not Exist if There Wasn’t a Huge Galactic Collision with the Milky Way Billions of Years Ago
The Milky Way has a number of satellite galaxies; nearly 60 of them, depedending on how we define them. One…
Are the Gaps in These Disks Caused by Planets?
Astronomers like observing distant young stars as they form. Stars are born out of a molecular cloud, and once enough…
Both Stars in This Binary System Have Accretion Disks Around Them
Stars exhibit all sorts of behaviors as they evolve. Small red dwarfs smolder for billions or even trillions of years.…
An Upcoming Impact With the Magellanic Clouds is Already Causing Star Formation in the Milky Way
A new study presented at the 235th meeting of the AAS this week shows how star formation is already happening…
This is the Core of the Milky Way, Seen in Infrared, Revealing Features Normally Hidden by Gas and Dust
The world's largest airborne telescope, SOFIA, has peered into the core of the Milky Way and captured a crisp image…
100,000 Supernovae Exploded Near the Core of the Milky Way
Using data from the GALACICNUCLEUS survey, a team of astronomers has determined that star formation occurred in massive bursts in…
The Most Massive Neutron Star has been Found. It’s ALMOST the Most Massive Neutron Star That’s Even Possible
Neutron stars are the end-state of massive stars that have spent their fuel and exploded as supernovae. There's an upper…
Newborn Stars in the Orion Nebula Prevent Other Stars from Forming
The Orion Nebula is one of the most observed and photographed objects in the night sky. At a distance of…
New Research Reveals How Galaxies Stay Hot and Bothered
It's relatively easy for galaxies to make stars. Start out with a bunch of random blobs of gas and dust.…