Star Formation
Galaxies Breathe Gas, and When They Stop, No More Stars Form
For most of the history of astronomy, all we could see were stars. We could see them individually, in clusters,…
It’s Like Looking at the Infant Sun: Webb Captures Image of an Energetic Young Star
Ever wondered what our young Sun might have looked like in its infancy some five billion years ago? The audacious…
JWST Gazes into the Dark Molecular Clouds at the Heart of the Milky Way
There's an unusual object near the Milky Way's heart that astronomers call "The Brick." It's a massive cloud of gas…
JWST Pierces Through a Thick Nebula to Reveal Newly Forming Binary Stars
In 1985, the physicist Heinz Pagels wrote that star birth was a "veiled and secret event." That's because the stellar…
Star Factories Haven’t Changed Much Over the Entire Age of the Universe
The ancient Universe is weird and secretive. Scientists have made laudable progress in uncovering more and more information on how…
A Feline in the Heavens: The Smiling Cat Nebula
A stellar nursery sounds like a placid place where baby stars go about their business undisturbed. But, of course, a…
Nancy Grace Roman Could Detect Supermassive Dark Stars
Dark stars are hypothetical objects that might have been present in the early Universe before the first stars and even…
An Unfortunate Planet is Undergoing “Extreme Evaporation,” Melting Under the Extreme Heat From its Star
Astronomers have known something strange is happening at the star FU Ori for decades. The star brightened dramatically about 85…
More Evidence of Massive First Generation Stars
A few days ago I wrote about the search for Population III stars. These stars were the first stars of…
The Tarantula Nebula Shouldn’t Be Forming Stars. What’s Going On?
The Tarantula Nebula is a star formation region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Tarantula is about 160,000 light-years away…