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…
Stars
Diverse Magnetic Fields Revealed in Solar-Type Star-Forming Cores
Magnetic fields are ubiquitous throughout our Milky Way Galaxy and play a crucial role in all dynamics of interstellar medium. However, questions like how Solar-type…
A Quarter of Stars Like Our Sun Eat Their Own Planets
How rare is our Solar System? In the 30 years or so since planets were first discovered orbiting stars other than our Sun, we have…
Magnetic Properties of Star-Forming Dense Cores – The Last Piece in the Puzzle of Star Formation
Magnetic fields in space are sometimes called the last piece in the puzzle of star formation. They are much harder to measure than the masses…
Hubble Find Surprises Astronomers: White Dwarfs Can Still Undergo Stable Thermonuclear Activity
Could dying stars hold the secret to looking younger? New evidence from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope suggests that white dwarfs could continue to burn…
A Black Hole Triggers a Premature Supernova – First Observation of a Brand-New Kind of Supernova
The first observation of a brand-new kind of supernova had been predicted by theorists but never before confirmed. In 2017, a particularly luminous and unusual…
How Special Are We? New Clues to the Formation of Our Solar System
Nearby star-forming region yields clues to the formation of our solar system. The radioactive elements could have been blown onto the nascent solar system by…
Astronomers Discover a Strangely Shaped Spot on the Surface of a Baby Star 450 Million Light-Years Away
What a Young Star Can Teach Us About the Birth of Our Planet, Sun, and Solar System Astronomers have discovered a strangely shaped spot on…
Radioactive New Clues to the Formation of Our Solar System From Nearby Stellar Nursery
The Ophiuchus star-forming complex offers an analog for the formation of the solar system, including the sources of elements found in primitive meteorites. A region…
In Search of Planets That Support Life: “Cool” Stars in the Cosmos May Not Be So Unique
Rice models infer small stars share similar dynamics to our sun, key to planet habitability. Stars scattered throughout the cosmos look different, but they may…
Bizarre, Metallic Star Spotted Hurtling Out of the Milky Way at 2 Million Miles an Hour
About 2,000 light-years away from Earth, there is a star catapulting toward the edge of the Milky Way. This particular star, known as LP 40−365,…
NASA’s TESS Tunes Into an Unprecedented All-Sky “Symphony” of Pulsating Red Giant Stars
Using observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have identified an unprecedented collection of pulsating red giant stars all across the sky. These…
Artificial Intelligence Helps Resolve Long-Running Astrophysics Debate on Supermassive Black Holes
Black holes with masses equivalent to millions of suns do put a brake on the birth of new stars, say astronomers. Using machine learning and…
Planetary Shields Will Buckle Under Furious Stellar Winds From Their Dying Stars – Nearly Impossible for Life To Survive
Any life identified on planets orbiting white dwarf stars almost certainly evolved after the star’s death, says a new study led by the University of…
Mystery Solved: Astronomers Unravel the Puzzle of Betelgeuse’s “Great Dimming”
The star Betelgeuse became visibly darker in 2019 and 2020, puzzling astronomers; new images show that the star was partially concealed by a cloud of…
Tragic Teardrop Star Reveals Hidden Supernova Doom
Astronomers have made the rare sighting of two stars spiraling to their doom by spotting the tell-tale signs of a teardrop-shaped star. The tragic shape…
Massive Stellar Explosion Illuminates Thousand-Year-Old Astronomical Mystery
A star in a distant galaxy blew up in a powerful explosion, solving an astronomical mystery. Dr. Iair Arcavi, a Tel Aviv University researcher at…
Learning New Things About Our Home Star: Physicists First Definitive Measurements of the Sun’s Electric Field
As the Parker Solar Probe ventures closer to the sun, we are learning new things about our home star. In a new study, physicists led…