Earth Is Surrounded by 1,000-Light-Year Wide Bubble – Source of All Nearby, Young Stars
The Earth sits in a 1,000-light-year-wide void surrounded by thousands of young stars — but how did those stars form? In a paper appearing today…
Stars
Astronomers Discover the Least “Metallic” Stellar Structure in the Milky Way
98.5% of the Sun is made up of two light chemical elements, hydrogen and helium, while the remaining 1.5% consists of other heavier elements such…
Ruins of Ancient Star Cluster Discovered at the Fringes of Our Galaxy
Gemini Observatory helps reveal that a stream of old stars at Milky Way’s edge is a shredded star cluster. A primordial stellar stream discovered in…
First Evidence of Coronal Rain on a Cold Star?
Observations of a distant stellar flare could contain the first evidence of coronal rain on a cool, small M-dwarf star. High-resolution spectroscopic observations of a…
Astronomers Explore Cosmic Ray Influences on Star Formation in Galaxies
The triggering of star formation, and also its quenching, is regulated by young massive stars in galaxies which inject energy and momentum into the interstellar…
Secret Embraces of Stars – With Far-Reaching Consequences – Revealed by Gigantic Telescope
Unlike our Sun, most stars live with a companion. Sometimes, two come so close that one engulfs the other – with far-reaching consequences. When a…
Watch Stars Race Around the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole at Mind-Boggling Speeds
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI) has obtained the deepest and sharpest images to date of the region around the supermassive…
Astronomers Unlock the Interior Structure of Beta Crucis – Reveal the Age of Massive Southern Cross Star
An international team of astronomers from Australia, the United States, and Europe has for the first time unlocked the interior structure of Beta Crucis –…
Surprise Planet Discovered Around Extreme Star Pair
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) has captured an image of a planet orbiting b Centauri, a two-star system that can be…
Roasted and Shredded by a Stellar Sidekick: Astronomers Find White Dwarf Blasting a Companion Object
A white dwarf is blasting a companion object, which is either a low-mass star or a planet. The companion is likely receiving a barrage of…
Breakdown of Gyrochronology: Magnetic Fields Implicated in the Mysterious Midlife Crisis of Stars
Middle-aged stars can experience their own kind of midlife crisis, experiencing dramatic breaks in their activity and rotation rates at about the same age as…
Astronomers Observe a New Type of Binary Star – “Exciting, Missing Evolutionary Link”
Researchers have predicted the new class of star’s existence for 50 years but until now, never observed it in space. Researchers at the Center for…
High-Speed Propeller Star Is Fastest Spinning White Dwarf – It’s the Size of Earth, but 200,000 Times More Massive
Record-breaking spin rate for a confirmed white dwarf star is observed by University of Warwick-led astronomers Establishes the star as only the second magnetic propeller…
Stellar Contradiction: Solar Systems Like Ours May Be Quite Rare
How common is our Solar System? Less common than we might think. A significant fraction of planetary systems around Sun-like stars have had a very…
A Cosmic Powder Keg: When a Stable Star Explodes
The supernova remnant G344.7-0.1 is across the Milky Way about 19,600 light years from Earth. It belongs to a class of supernovas called “Type Ia”…
Stellar Fossils in Pristine Meteorites Point to Ancient Stars That Died Before the Sun Formed
Some pristine meteorites contain a record of the original building blocks of the solar system, including grains that formed in ancient stars that died before…
Touching the Stars: Astronomers Can Now Hold Stellar Nurseries in Their Hands
Researchers can now hold stellar nurseries in their hands thanks to 3D printing, revealing features often obscured in traditional renderings and animations. Astronomers can’t touch…
Astronomers Have Discovered a Gigantic Sphere-Shaped Cavity in Space
Gigantic cavity in space sheds new light on how stars form. Astronomers analyzing 3D maps of the shapes and sizes of nearby molecular clouds have…