New, Third Type of Supernova Discovered: An Electron-Capture Supernova
An international team of astronomers has observed the first example of a new type of supernova. The discovery, confirming a prediction made four decades ago,…
Stars News
A Smoldering Stellar Corpse on the Edge: Astronomers Spot a White Dwarf So Massive It Might Collapse
Astronomers have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen. The smoldering cinder, which formed when two less massive white dwarfs merged, is…
Ongoing “Hubble Tension” in Expanding Universe Debate – “There May Not Be a Conflict After All”
New analysis by University of Chicago astronomer finds agreement with standard model in ongoing “Hubble tension.” Our universe is expanding, but our two main ways…
Are We Missing Other Earths? Dramatic New Evidence Uncovered by Astronomers
Astronomers studying stellar pairs uncover evidence that there could be many more Earth-sized planets than previously thought. Some exoplanet searches could be missing nearly half…
Mega-Flares From Stars: 10 Million Times More Energetic Than the Most Powerful Flare Ever Observed on the Sun
The long relationships between stars and the planets around them — including the Sun and the Earth — may be even more complex than previously…
A Scattering of Stars Shows Us Something New About the Universe and the Hubble Space Telescope
This Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week depicts the open star cluster NGC 330, which lies around 180,000 light-years away inside the Small Magellanic…
CIBER-2 Rocket Team to Discover if Our Count of Stars in the Universe Should Go Way Up
The universe contains a mind-boggling number of stars – but scientists’ best estimates may be an undercount. A NASA-funded sounding rocket is launching with an…
Astronomers Discover a Massive Star Cluster – Hiding in Plain Sight – in the Constellation Scutum
An international team of astrophysicists led by the Stellar Astrophysics Group of the University of Alicante (UA), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and…
Witnessing Cosmic Dawn – 250 Million to 350 Million Years After the Beginning of the Universe
Cosmic dawn, when stars formed for the first time, occurred 250 million to 350 million years after the beginning of the universe, according to a…
SOFIA Captures First Clear View of a Boiling Cosmic Cauldron Where Stars Are Born
UMD-led team used NASA’s SOFIA telescope to capture high-resolution details of a star nursery in the Milky Way. University of Maryland researchers created the first…
Mind the Gap: Direct Link Uncovered Between Protoplanetary Disk Structures and Giant Exoplanets
New survey reveals that the presence of gaps in planet-forming disks is more common to higher mass stars and to the development of large, gaseous…
The Give and Take of Stellar Mega-Flares: By Studying Thousands of Young Stars, New Information Has Emerged
How do flares, or outbursts, from young stars affect planets that orbit around them? The largest study of star-forming regions in X-rays using NASA’s Chandra…
Young Chaotic Star System Reveals Secrets of Planet Formation
New observations of young stellar object Elias 2-27 confirm gravitational instabilities and planet-forming disk mass as key to formation of giant planets. A team of…
Blistering Stars in the Universe: Rare Insights Into How Violent Supernova Explosions Affect Nearby Stars
What happens if a supernova explosion goes off right beside another star? The star swells up, which scientists predict as a frequent occurrence in the…
Unusual “Rosetta Stone” Solar Eruption Could Help Explain Mysterious Powerful Explosions on the Sun
In a dramatic, multi-staged eruption, the Sun has revealed new clues that could help scientists solve the long-standing mystery of what causes the Sun’s powerful…
Massive Stars Are Formed Not From Dust Disk but From Debris – “A Chaotic Mess”
A Dutch-led team of astronomers has discovered that high-mass stars are formed differently from their smaller siblings. Whereas small stars are often surrounded by an…
Star Formation Is Triggered by Collisions of Gas Clouds in Space
Japanese researchers have found that collisions of gas clouds hovering in space bring about the birth of star clusters. Stars form by the gravitational contraction…
STARFORGE: Stunning Simulation of Stars Being Born Is Most Realistic Ever
First high-resolution model to simulate an entire gas cloud where stars are born. A team including Northwestern University astrophysicists has developed the most realistic, highest-resolution…
