Stellar Evolution
Just 2,000 Years Ago, Betelgeuse Was Yellow, Not Red
Compared to the lifespan of stars, human lives are pretty short. Stars such as Betelgeuse (in Orion) live for millions…
Astronomers Find the Oldest Planetary Nebula
Planetary nebulae are short-lived "leftovers" of sun-like stars. Most of these "star ghosts" only last—at most—about 25,000 years. Usually, their…
In Wildly Different Environments, Stars End Up Roughly the Same
When you look at a region of the sky where stars are born, you see a cloud of gas and…
Thanks to Gaia we Know Exactly how and When the Sun Will die
Observations from the Gaia spacecraft gives us a detailed picture of how the Sun will live and die.
A Dormant Black Hole has Been Discovered Just Outside the Milky Way
What happens when a massive star dies? Conventional wisdom (and observational evidence) say that it can collapse to form a…
Red Supergiant Stars Bubble and Froth so Much That Their Position in the Sky Seems to Dance Around
Making a 3D map of our galaxy would be easier if some stars behaved long enough to get good distances…
Astronomers Caught Betelgeuse Just Before it Started Dimming and Might Have Seen a Pressure Wave Rippling Through its Atmosphere
A couple of years ago, Betelgeuse generated much interest when it started dimming. That caught the attention of astronomers worldwide,…
Slimmed Down Red Giants Had Their Mass Stolen By a Companion Star
Millions of stars that can grow up to 620 million miles in diameter, known as 'red giants,' exist in our…
A Second Generation of Planets can Form Around a Dying Star
When young stars coalesce out of a cloud of molecular hydrogen, a disk of leftover material called a protoplanetary disk…
Astronomers Watch a Star Die and Then Explode as a Supernova
It's another first for astronomy. For the first time, a team of astronomers have imaged in real-time as a red…