Star Formation

A Star Became 1,000 Times Brighter, and Now Astronomers Know Why

Astronomers were surprised in 1937 when a star in a binary pair suddenly brightened by 1,000 times. The pair is…

6 months ago

Binary Stars Form in the Same Nebula But Aren’t Identical. Now We Know Why.

It stands to reason that stars formed from the same cloud of material will have the same metallicity. That fact…

7 months ago

Another New Molecule Discovered Forming in Space

The list of chemicals found in space is growing longer and longer. Astronomers have found amino acids and other building…

7 months ago

Hubble Sees a Star About to Ignite

This is an image of the FS Tau multi-star system taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The bright object at…

8 months ago

Webb Sees a Star-Forming Region Blowing Vast Bubbles

Star birth is a messy and chaotic event. Some of the process remains well hidden behind clouds of gas and…

8 months ago

This Galaxy Was Already Dead When the Universe Was Only 700 Million Years Old

When a galaxy runs out of gas and dust, the process of star birth stops. That takes billions of years.…

8 months ago

Even Stars Like the Sun Can Unleash Savage Flares in Their Youth

Why would a young Sun-like star suddenly belch out a hugely bright flare? That's what astronomers at Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical…

9 months ago

The JWST Discovers a Galaxy That Shouldn’t Exist

Astronomers working with the JWST found a dwarf galaxy they weren't looking for. It's about 98 million years away, has…

9 months ago

Astronomers See Massive Stars Forming Together in Multiple Star Systems

All stars form in giant molecular clouds of hydrogen. But some stars are extraordinarily massive; the most massive one we…

10 months ago

The Oldest Known Spiral Galaxy Has Ripples Like the Surface of a Pond

Astronomers have detected pond-like ripples across the gaseous disk of an ancient galaxy. What caused the ripples, and what do…

10 months ago