Star Formation

Galaxies Breathe Gas, and When They Stop, No More Stars Form

For most of the history of astronomy, all we could see were stars. We could see them individually, in clusters,…

2 weeks ago

It’s Like Looking at the Infant Sun: Webb Captures Image of an Energetic Young Star

Ever wondered what our young Sun might have looked like in its infancy some five billion years ago? The audacious…

2 weeks ago

JWST Gazes into the Dark Molecular Clouds at the Heart of the Milky Way

There's an unusual object near the Milky Way's heart that astronomers call "The Brick." It's a massive cloud of gas…

3 weeks ago

JWST Pierces Through a Thick Nebula to Reveal Newly Forming Binary Stars

In 1985, the physicist Heinz Pagels wrote that star birth was a "veiled and secret event." That's because the stellar…

2 months ago

Star Factories Haven’t Changed Much Over the Entire Age of the Universe

The ancient Universe is weird and secretive. Scientists have made laudable progress in uncovering more and more information on how…

2 months ago

A Feline in the Heavens: The Smiling Cat Nebula

A stellar nursery sounds like a placid place where baby stars go about their business undisturbed. But, of course, a…

3 months ago

Nancy Grace Roman Could Detect Supermassive Dark Stars

Dark stars are hypothetical objects that might have been present in the early Universe before the first stars and even…

3 months ago

An Unfortunate Planet is Undergoing “Extreme Evaporation,” Melting Under the Extreme Heat From its Star

Astronomers have known something strange is happening at the star FU Ori for decades. The star brightened dramatically about 85…

3 months ago

More Evidence of Massive First Generation Stars

A few days ago I wrote about the search for Population III stars. These stars were the first stars of…

4 months ago

The Tarantula Nebula Shouldn’t Be Forming Stars. What’s Going On?

The Tarantula Nebula is a star formation region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Tarantula is about 160,000 light-years away…

4 months ago