1–20 of 461 results
central pulsar encased in disk, pulsar emits narrow jet out of its poles. In background is a larger but less massive companion star

Stellar Science

Peculiar Pulsar Throws “Cosmic Cannonballs”

Astronomers think a city-size star that’s spinning faster than a kitchen blender is shooting out plasma torpedoes.

Giant flare on a magnetar

Stellar Science

Fast Radio Burst Roundup

They’re powerful, they’re fast, and we aren’t sure about what causes them, but astronomers are closer than ever to understanding the source of mysterious fast radio bursts.

Giant blue star is rugby-ball shaped, with a smaller blue companion to lower left

Stellar Science

Surf’s Up: Waves Might Be Breaking on This Star

An unusual star system that brightens and fades every month might have giant plasma waves breaking on its surface.

Magnetic massive star shines blue with dipole field

Stellar Science

Astronomers Find Strange Star Is a Powerful Magnet

Astronomers have found a star that has a magnetic field rivaling the strongest magnet humans have ever built — and it might explain the origin of highly magnetic cinders known as magnetars.

Near-infrared image shows the Ring Nebula in yellow (central area) and purple (outer ring)

Stellar Science

Webb Views the Ring Nebula and Earendel in a New Light

This week, James Webb Space Telescope reveals new details in the Ring Nebula and shows that the most distant known star isn't alone. Meanwhile, patient astronomers have collected 17 years' worth of images of the super-Jupiter Beta Pictoris b.

Explosive forming stars

Exoplanets

Astronomy in Pictures: The Birth of Stars and Planets

Images capture the birth of stars and planets in multiple results from space- and ground-based telescopes.

hot blue ball, one side brighter than the other

Stellar Science

A Jekyll-Hyde White Dwarf

The white dwarf J2033 seems to switch rapidly between two compositions.

Neutron star

Stellar Science

Astronomers Find Mysterious, Slowly Pulsing Star

An unidentified source has been beaming out a pulse of radio waves every 22 minutes since 1988.

magnetar illustration: white sphere with magnetic dipole lines and flashes among the field lines

Stellar Science

Could Axions Help Fast Radio Bursts Escape a Magnetar’s Grasp?

New research proposes a way for fast radio bursts to escape the confines of a magnetized star and jet out into space — by getting help from theoretical particles called axions.

Nova Persei expansion

Explore the Night with Bob King

Time-lapse Animations Reveal a Universe in Transformation

Deep-sky objects may appear static throughout our lifetime but by carefully "blinking" archival and current images we can discern real changes in their appearance.

Fuzzy blob inset in field of galaxies

Stellar Science

Could Supermassive Stars Explain How This Galaxy Got Its Nitrogen?

Supermassive stars might explain the unusual amounts of nitrogen in one of the most distant known galaxies, GN-z11.

The roiling surface of Betelgeuse

Stellar Science

How Soon Will Betelgeuse Blow?

A new study making the rounds predicts that supergiant Betelgeuse will explode as a supernova sooner rather than later, but others are urging caution.

Gamma-ray burst jets pierce cocoon

Stellar Science

We Could Soon “Hear” the Gravitational Waves of Dying Stars

Massive, dying stars — behemoths tens of times the Sun's mass — should emit gravitational waves that we can hear with LIGO.

Small white dwarf at left pulls gas in a spiral pattern from a larger star at right

Stellar Science

Radio Waves Unveil Supernova Origin

Astronomers have observed an unusual supernova, in which a helium star fed a white dwarf until it exploded.

stylized atoms sprayed over a field of black

Stellar Science

Astronomers Find the Remains of the Universe’s First Stars

The first stars are too faint and far away to detect directly, but their gaseous remains can be seen absorbing the light of distant galaxies.

Radio waves from fast radio burst penetrate intergalactic plasma on their way to Earth in the Milky Way

Stellar Science

Mystery Bursts Give Astronomers a View into Galaxy Halos

Flashes of radio waves — whose exact sources are still a bit of a mystery — are helping astronomers learn about the hot gas that surrounds the Milky Way.

An X-ray image of GRB 221009A

Stellar Science

Focusing on the Brightest Gamma-ray Burst of All Time

Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the universe, and we’ve learned much about these superlative outbursts since their discovery in 1967.

Orion Nebula with T Ori

Variable Stars

Catch Birth Flickers of Budding Suns in Orion

Three flickering stars in Orion offer insight into what life looks like before the main sequence.

Supernova fireworks

Stellar Science

White Dwarf Survived 850-year-old Supernova

A supernova that skywatchers in the Far East observed almost 850 years ago has produced the most unusual remnant astronomers have ever found

Illustration of binary shows their current and past diameters

Stellar Science

Astronomers Spot A Tiny Binary System

A tiny binary system is not only small but also ancient, billions of years older than other such systems, which raises questions about its origins.

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