binary stars
A Second Generation of Planets can Form Around a Dying Star
When young stars coalesce out of a cloud of molecular hydrogen, a disk of leftover material called a protoplanetary disk…
Incredible Image Shows Twin Stellar Jets Blasting Out of a Star-Forming Region
Young stars go through a lot as they're being born. They sometimes emit jets of ionized gas called MHOs—Molecular Hydrogen…
Astronomers Discover a Totally New Kind of Nebula
Most Universe Today readers are familiar with nebulae. They're gaseous structures lit up with radiation from nearby stars, and they're…
Astronomers See a Star Crash Through the Planetary Disk of Another Star
What causes an otherwise unremarkable star to become over 100 times brighter? That's a question astronomers have been pondering since…
Many Sunlike Stars Gobbled up Some of Their Planets
New research shows that other sunlike stars in our galaxy aren't so kind to their planets. Up to a quarter…
A Nearby White Dwarf Might be About to Collapse Into a Neutron Star
A white dwarf star has been found that's more massive than our Sun, but about the same size as our…
There are Probably Many More Earth-Sized Worlds Than Previously Believed
In the past decade, the discovery of extrasolar planets has accelerated immensely. To date, 4,424 exoplanets have been confirmed in…
Astronomers Find a Blinking Star Near the Center of the Milky Way
In this week’s edition of new unexplained astronomical phenomena, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Leigh Smith from Cambridge…
Smallest, Closest Black Hole Ever Discovered is Only 1,500 Light-Years Away
A red giant star may have a black hole companion that is only three solar masses in size.
Our Part of the Galaxy is Packed with Binary Stars
Binary star systems are everywhere. They make up a huge percentage of all known solar systems: from what we can…