Star Formation
A Star Became 1,000 Times Brighter, and Now Astronomers Know Why
Astronomers were surprised in 1937 when a star in a binary pair suddenly brightened by 1,000 times. The pair is…
Binary Stars Form in the Same Nebula But Aren’t Identical. Now We Know Why.
It stands to reason that stars formed from the same cloud of material will have the same metallicity. That fact…
Another New Molecule Discovered Forming in Space
The list of chemicals found in space is growing longer and longer. Astronomers have found amino acids and other building…
Hubble Sees a Star About to Ignite
This is an image of the FS Tau multi-star system taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The bright object at…
Webb Sees a Star-Forming Region Blowing Vast Bubbles
Star birth is a messy and chaotic event. Some of the process remains well hidden behind clouds of gas and…
This Galaxy Was Already Dead When the Universe Was Only 700 Million Years Old
When a galaxy runs out of gas and dust, the process of star birth stops. That takes billions of years.…
Even Stars Like the Sun Can Unleash Savage Flares in Their Youth
Why would a young Sun-like star suddenly belch out a hugely bright flare? That's what astronomers at Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical…
The JWST Discovers a Galaxy That Shouldn’t Exist
Astronomers working with the JWST found a dwarf galaxy they weren't looking for. It's about 98 million years away, has…
Astronomers See Massive Stars Forming Together in Multiple Star Systems
All stars form in giant molecular clouds of hydrogen. But some stars are extraordinarily massive; the most massive one we…
The Oldest Known Spiral Galaxy Has Ripples Like the Surface of a Pond
Astronomers have detected pond-like ripples across the gaseous disk of an ancient galaxy. What caused the ripples, and what do…