Stars
Prelude to a Supernova: The James Webb Captures a Rare Wolf-Rayet Star
Massive stars are sprinters. It might seem counterintuitive that stars 100 or 200 times more massive than our Sun could…
Even the Calmest Red Dwarfs are Wilder than the Sun
There's something menacing about red dwarfs. Human eyes are accustomed to our benevolent yellow Sun and the warm light it…
Speedrunning Star Formation in the Cygnus X Region
Stars are born in molecular clouds, massive clouds of hydrogen that can contain millions of stellar masses of material. But…
The Mass of a Single Star (other than the Sun) has Been Directly Measured for the First Time
How do you measure an object's weight from a distance? You could guess at its distance and therefore derive its…
Hubble’s New View of the Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula, also called 30 Doradus, is the brightest star-forming region in our part of the galaxy. It's in…
This Binary System is Destined to Become a Kilonova
Kilonovae are extraordinarily rare. Astronomers think there are only about 10 of them in the Milky Way. But they're extraordinarily…
Binary Dwarf Stars Found Orbiting Each Other Every 20 Hours. They Were Once Almost Touching
A team of astrophysicists has discovered a binary pair of ultra-cool dwarfs so close together that they look like a…
The Donut That Used To Be a Star
The death of a star is one of the most dramatic natural events in the Universe. Some stars die in…
A Black Hole is Savoring its Meal, Feeding on the Same Star Over and Over Again
Something extraordinary happens about every 10,000 to 100,000 years in galaxies like the Milky Way. An unwary star approaches the…
This Star is Blasting Out a Concentrated Jet of Material at 500 km/s
MWC 349A is a star about 3,900 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. It's huge, about 38 times as massive…