Stars
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…
Even if We Can’t See the First Stars, We Could Detect Their Impact on the First Galaxies
For a long time, our understanding of the Universe's first galaxies leaned heavily on theory. The light from that age…
A Super-Earth (and Possible Earth-Sized) Exoplanet Found in the Habitable Zone
Astronomers have found a new Super-Earth orbiting an M-dwarf (red dwarf) star about 137 light-years away. The planet is named…
How Dangerous are Kilonovae?
Neutron stars' collisions create powerful explosions, a type of gamma-ray burst known as a kilonova. What would it be like…
New Types of Hidden Stars Seen for the First Time
Astronomers performing a vast infrared variable star survey have discovered new additions to the stellar menagerie. These new types of…
Nancy Grace Roman Could Find the First Stars in the Universe
The first stars in the Universe were made out of the primordial hydrogen and helium left over from the Big…
Is this the Lightest Black Hole or Heaviest Neutron Star?
About 40,000 light-years away, a rapidly spinning object has a companion that's confounding astronomers. It's heavier than the heaviest neutron…
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…
A Giant Star is Fading Away. But First, it Had an Enormous Eruption
About 16,000 light-years away, a massive star experienced an unusual dimming event. This can happen in binary stars when one…
This Globular Cluster is Plunging Toward the Milky Way’s Centre
Globular clusters (GCs) are spherical groups of stars held together by mutual gravity. Large ones can have millions of stars,…