stars
Searching for Phosphorus in Other Stars
The Search for Life can be a lot messier than it sounds. The three words make a nice, tidy title,…
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…
The Last Supernovae
The last supernova in history will be the final burst of light in a cold, dark, and dead cosmos.
Gamma-Ray Telescopes Can Measure the Diameters of Other Stars
Four gamma ray telescopes have used a new method of interferometry to measure the size of two stars.
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…
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…
Huge Stars Can Destroy Nearby Planetary Disks
Westerlund 2 is a star cluster about 20,000 light years away. It's young—only about one or two million years old—and…
A New Kind of Supernova Explosion has been Discovered: Fast Blue Optical Transients
For the child inside all of us space-enthusiasts, there might be nothing better than discovering a new type of explosion.…
TESS is Also Helping Astronomers Study Bizarre Pulsating Stars
NASA's TESS, or Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has one main job: finding exoplanets. But it's also helping astronomers study a…
Both Stars in This Binary System Have Accretion Disks Around Them
Stars exhibit all sorts of behaviors as they evolve. Small red dwarfs smolder for billions or even trillions of years.…