Stars News

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Astronomers Discover First Pairs of White Dwarf and Main Sequence Stars in Clusters, Shining New Light on Stellar Evolution

Nov. 19, 2024 — Astronomers have discovered the first pairs of white dwarf and main sequence stars -- 'dead' remnants and 'living' stars -- in young star clusters. This breakthrough offers new insights on an extreme ...

New Idea May Crack Enigma of the Crab Nebula's 'Zebra' Pattern

Nov. 18, 2024 — A theoretical astrophysicist may have solved a nearly two-decade-old mystery over the origins of an unusual 'zebra' pattern seen in high-frequency radio pulses from the Crab ...

Three Galactic 'Red Monsters' in the Early Universe

Nov. 13, 2024 — Astronomers have identified three ultra-massive galaxies -- nearly as massive as the Milky Way -- already in place within the first billion years after the Big Bang. This surprising discovery was made possible by the James Webb Space Telescope's ...

A Formula for Life? New Model Calculates Chances of Intelligent Beings in Our Universe and Beyond

Nov. 12, 2024 — The chances of intelligent life emerging in our Universe -- and in any hypothetical ones beyond it -- can be estimated by a new theoretical model which has echoes of the famous Drake Equation. This ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:04pm EST

Mighty Radio Bursts Linked to Massive Galaxies

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered where FRBs are more likely to occur in the universe -- massive star-forming galaxies rather than low - mass ...

Dance of Electrons Measured in the Glow from Exploding Neutron-Stars

Nov. 4, 2024 — The temperature of elementary particles has been observed in the radioactive glow following the collision of two neutron stars and the birth of a black hole. This has, for the first time, made it ...

NASA's Hubble, Webb Probe Surprisingly Smooth Disk Around Vega

Nov. 1, 2024 — Teams of astronomers used the combined power of NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes to revisit the legendary Vega ...

One of the Fastest-Spinning Stars in the Universe

Oct. 30, 2024 — New research in our Milky Way has revealed a neutron star that rotates around its axis at an extremely high speed. It spins 716 times per second, making it one of the fastest-spinning objects ever ...

Dandelion-Shaped Supernova and Zombie Star

Oct. 24, 2024 — A historical supernova documented by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1181 has been lost for centuries, until very recently. Yet, the newly found remnant shows some stunning characteristics that ...

Rocky Planets Orbiting Small Stars Could Have Stable Atmospheres Needed to Support Life

Oct. 23, 2024 — A sequence of events during the evolution of certain rocky planets orbiting M-dwarfs, the most common stars in the universe, creates an atmosphere ...

Physicists Discover First 'Black Hole Triple'

Oct. 23, 2024 — A surprising discovery about the black hole V404 Cygnus is expanding our understanding of black holes, the objects they can host, and the way they ...

Neutron Stars May Be Shrouded in Axions

Oct. 18, 2024 — Physicists have shown that extremely light particles known as axions may occur in large clouds around neutron stars. These axions could form an explanation for the elusive dark matter that ...

It's Twins! Mystery of Famed Brown Dwarf Solved

Oct. 16, 2024 — An international team of astronomers has figured out that a famous brown dwarf is actually a pair of tight-knit brown dwarfs, weighing about 38 and 34 times the mass of Jupiter, that whip around each ...

'Inside-Out' Galaxy Growth Observed in the Early Universe

Oct. 11, 2024 — Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the 'inside-out' growth of a galaxy in the early universe, only 700 million years after the Big ...

Winds of Change: James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Elusive Details in Young Star Systems

Oct. 7, 2024 — Planet-forming disks, maelstroms of gas and dust swirling around young stars, are nurseries that give rise to planetary systems, including our solar system. Astronomers have discovered new details of ...

In Odd Galaxy, NASA's Webb Finds Potential Missing Link to First Stars

Oct. 3, 2024 — Looking deep into the early universe with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found something unprecedented: a galaxy with an odd light signature, which they attribute to its gas ...

NASA's TESS Spots Record-Breaking Stellar Triplets

Oct. 2, 2024 — Professional and amateur astronomers teamed up with artificial intelligence to find an unmatched stellar trio called TIC 290061484, thanks to cosmic 'strobe lights' captured by NASA's ...

Physicists Explore Possibility of Life Beyond Earth

Oct. 1, 2024 — Are there planets beyond Earth where humans can live? The answer is maybe, according to physicists examining F-type star ...

Scientists Discover Planet Orbiting Closest Single Star to Our Sun

Oct. 1, 2024 — Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting Barnard's star, the closest single star to our Sun. On this newly discovered exoplanet, which has at least half the mass of Venus, a year lasts ...

This Rocky Planet Around a White Dwarf Resembles Earth -- 8 Billion Years from Now

Sep. 26, 2024 — A 2020 microlensing event was caused by a planetary system with an Earth-like planet and brown dwarf. The star type was uncertain. The team has determined that the star is a white dwarf, a system ...

ESO Telescope Captures the Most Detailed Infrared Map Ever of Our Milky Way

Sep. 26, 2024 — Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects -- the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory's VISTA ...

NASA's Hubble Finds That a Black Hole Beam Promotes Stellar Eruptions

Sep. 26, 2024 — In a surprise finding, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause ...

Webb Discovers 'Weird' Galaxy With Gas Outshining Its Stars

Sep. 25, 2024 — The discovery of a 'weird' and unprecedented galaxy in the early Universe could 'help us understand how the cosmic story began', astronomers say. GS-NDG-9422 (9422) was found ...

Early-Universe Quasar Neighborhoods Are Indeed Cluttered

Sep. 23, 2024 — Observations confirm astronomers' expectation that early-Universe quasars formed in regions of space densely populated with companion galaxies. DECam's exceptionally wide field of view and ...

NASA's Webb Provides Another Look Into Galactic Collisions

Sep. 18, 2024 — Astronomers examined galaxy Arp 107 which has revealed a wealth of information about star-formation and how two galaxies collided hundreds of million years ago. Arp 107 is located 465 million ...

More Black Holes Than Expected in the Early Universe

Sep. 17, 2024 — With the help of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of scientists has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help ...

Astronomers Detect Black Hole 'Starving' Its Host Galaxy to Death

Sep. 16, 2024 — Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope to confirm that supermassive black holes can starve their host galaxies of the fuel they need to form new ...

NASA's Webb Peers Into the Extreme Outer Galaxy

Sep. 12, 2024 — Astronomers have directed NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to examine the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists call this region the Extreme Outer Galaxy due to its location more than ...

Astronomers Track Bubbles on Star's Surface

Sep. 11, 2024 — Astronomers have captured images of a star other than the Sun in enough detail to track the motion of bubbling gas on its surface. The images of the star, R Doradus, were obtained in July and August ...

Formation of Super-Earths Is Limited Near Metal-Poor Stars

Sep. 9, 2024 — In a new study, astronomers report novel evidence regarding the limits of planet formation, finding that after a certain point, planets larger than Earth have difficulty forming near low-metallicity ...

Gravitational Waves Unveil Previously Unseen Properties of Neutron Stars

Sep. 5, 2024 — A better understanding of the inner workings of neutron stars will lead to a greater knowledge of the dynamics that underpin the workings of the universe and also could help drive future technology. ...

Researchers Discover a Space Oddity -- An Exoplanet Moving in Mysterious Ways

Sep. 5, 2024 — A research team has discovered a small planet that displays peculiar orbital motion. The shimmying planet, located 455 light-years from Earth, shows that planetary systems can be considerably more ...

Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark

Sep. 4, 2024 — It's 7 billion years ago, and the universe's heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers have found clues in ...

Dancing Galaxies Make a Monster at the Cosmic Dawn

Aug. 29, 2024 — Astronomers have spotted a pair of galaxies in the act of merging 12.8 billion years ago. The characteristics of these galaxies indicate that the merger will form a monster galaxy, one of the ...