Stars
The Strange, Misshapen Orbits of Planet-Forming Disks in a Triple-Star System
Whatever we grow up with, we think of as normal. Our single solitary yellow star seems normal to us, with…
Fastest Star Ever Seen is Moving at 8% the Speed of Light
A star orbiting the black hole in the center of our galaxy is moving so fast it can only be…
Supercomputer Simulation Shows a Supernova 300 Days After it Explodes
The answers to many questions in astronomy are hidden behind the veil of deep time. One of those questions is…
1 in 10 Red Giants are Covered in Spots, and They Rotate Surprisingly Quickly
Sunspots are common on our Sun. These darker patches are cooler than their surroundings, and they're caused by spikes in…
Betelgeuse Probably Dimmed Because of Enormous Starspots
A few months ago we all watched as Betelgeuse dimmed. Between October 2019 and 22nd of February 2020 the star's…
Planets Form in Just a Few Hundred Thousand Years
Astronomers like to observe young planets forming in circumstellar debris disks, the rotating rings of material around young stars. But…
Antares is a supergiant star that would fill the Solar System beyond Mars, but its atmosphere is 12 times bigger than that
Antares, the angry red eye of the constellation Taurus the bull, is a red supergiant star near the end of…
New Horizons is so Far From Earth That the Positions of the Stars Look a Little Different From its Perspective
From its current position in the Kuiper Belt, the New Horizons spacecraft recently conducted a parallax experiment that is not…
This is a Binary Star in the Process of Formation
About 460 light years away lies the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. It's a molecular cloud—an active star-forming region—and it's one…
It Should Be Easiest to Search for Young Earth-like Planets When They’re Completely Covered in Magma
How did Earth evolve from an ocean of magma to the vibrant, life-supporting, blue jewel it is now? In its…