Stars
The Donut That Used To Be a Star
The death of a star is one of the most dramatic natural events in the Universe. Some stars die in…
A Black Hole is Savoring its Meal, Feeding on the Same Star Over and Over Again
Something extraordinary happens about every 10,000 to 100,000 years in galaxies like the Milky Way. An unwary star approaches the…
This Star is Blasting Out a Concentrated Jet of Material at 500 km/s
MWC 349A is a star about 3,900 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. It's huge, about 38 times as massive…
Are Planets Tidally Locked to Red Dwarfs Habitable? It’s Complicated
Astronomers are keenly interested in red dwarfs and the planets that orbit them. Up to 85% of the stars in…
How Do Stars Get Kicked Out of Globular Clusters?
Globular clusters are densely-packed collections of stars bound together gravitationally in roughly-shaped spheres. They contain hundreds of thousands of stars.…
A Black Hole Consumed a Star and Released the Light of a Trillion Suns
When a flash of light appears somewhere in the sky, astronomers notice. When it appears in a region of the…
It’s Feeding Time For This Baby Star in Orion
Young protostars are wrapped in what could be called a womb of gas and dust. The gas and dust nearest…
New Observations Confirm That a Magnetar has a Solid Surface and No Atmosphere
Can a star have a solid surface? It might sound counterintuitive. But human intuition is a response to our evolution…
Can JWST see Galaxies Made of Primordial Stars?
With a bit of luck, the Webb Space Telescope might be able to see a galaxy full of the first…
Another Reason Red Dwarfs Might Be Bad for Life: No Asteroid Belts
In a recent study accepted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of researchers at the University of Nevada, Las…