star formation

Newly Forming Stars Don’t Blast Away Material as Previously Believed. So Why Do They Stop Growing?

We thought we understood how stars are formed. It turns out, we don't. Not completely, anyway. A new study, recently…

4 years ago

The Core Of The Milky Way Is An Extreme Place

Astronomers always like to look at incredibly violent places.  Violence, in the astronomical sense, makes for rare conditions that can…

4 years ago

Astronomers Can Predict When a Galaxy’s Star Formation Ends Based on the Shape and Size of its Disk

A galaxy's main business is star formation. And when they're young, like youth everywhere, they keep themselves busy with it.…

4 years ago

Galaxy Mergers can Boost Star Formation, and it can Also Shut it Down

Galaxy mergers are beautiful sights, but ultimately deadly. In the midst of the collision, the combined galaxy will shine brighter…

4 years ago

This is a Simulation of the Interstellar Medium Flowing Like Smoke Throughout the Milky Way

How do stars form? We know they form from massive structures called molecular clouds, which themselves form from the Interstellar…

4 years ago

This is the Fireworks Galaxy. It’s had ten Supernovae in the Last Century Alone

Say hello to NGC 6946, otherwise known as the Fireworks Galaxy. This little galaxy is the most prolific producer of…

4 years ago

Massive stars get kicked out of clusters

The largest stars in the universe tend to be loners, and new research points to the reason why. Although massive…

4 years ago

Seeing baby stars at every stage of their formation

Stars form from the collapse of dense clouds of gas and dust, which makes it very hard for astronomers to…

4 years ago

The Corona Australis Molecular Cloud. Normally this Looks Like a Dark Blob in the Sky. But in Infrared, it Looks Like This.

The Corona Australis is a constellation in the southern hemisphere. It's name literally means "southern crown." One of its features…

4 years ago

Hubble Looked as Far Back in Time as it Could, and Still Couldn’t See the First Generation of Stars in the Universe

Astronomers don’t know exactly when the first stars formed in the Universe because they haven’t been observed yet. And now,…

5 years ago