Tag: Stars

For the first time, astronomers have detected the magnetic fields of massive, blazingly hot stars outside our galaxy. They’re stars that actually live in our galactic companions, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC).  Discovering stellar magnetism in these satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, both of which have a large population of young stars, offers scientists a unique chance to study actively forming stars. It could also answer the question of how much mass a star can pile on before it loses stability. Magnetism is…

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Using the Euclid space telescope, scientists have discovered a staggering 1.5 trillion orphan stars drifting through a massive cluster of thousands of galaxies, one of the largest structures in the cosmos.  These orphan stars, ripped free from their own galaxies, are filling the space between the galaxies of the Perseus cluster with ghostly blue light. This so-called “intracluster” light is so faint that it is many thousands of times darker than the night sky over Earth.  By observing this intracluster light in the Perseus cluster, which is located 240 million…

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Have you ever wondered what our sun looked like when it was young? Although we know the sun to be an unchanging, and even predictable source, of light in our skies, its youthful version some 4.6 billion years ago was quite active. During those formative years, our star spewed solar flares every week or so, despite shining only about a third as bright as it does now. Scientists also suspect that even though the early sun exhibited a dim stature, it kept the then-young Earth warm enough for life to…

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Every new parent knows the cold anxiety that grips them when their baby sneezes for the first time. That’s when a litany of possible issues and ailments probably begin to irrationally race through your mind. Researchers now know baby stars also “sneeze,” but these infinitely more powerful post-natal sneezes launch gas, dust, and magnetic energy. In other words, they’re more useful to the cosmos than stressful.  These eruptions from so-called “protostars” are actually a vital part of stellar development, and can tell scientists a great deal about that stellar body’s evolution…

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Scientists have discovered the gruesome secret behind the apparent youth of some of stars at the heart of the Milky Way — stars participating in a sort of cosmic demolition derby around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*. Like a cosmic version of 17th-century serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, who supposedly sought to maintain her youthful glow by bathing in the blood of her victims, some of these stars seem to stay looking young by slamming into their neighbor stars and coating themselves in the stolen stellar…

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In December 2023, the Hubble Space Telescope completed its largest program since launching in 1990. With this program, the telescope made observations of 500 individual stars over three years — and scientists are now ready to dive into this cosmic Easter egg of data. The comprehensive Hubble Telescope survey is called the Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards, or ULLYSES; Hubble was deemed by ULLYSES operators as the sole active telescope capable of accomplishing such a pioneering endeavor. These ultraviolet-light-observation treats will last way past the Easter holiday,…

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Scientists have discovered a rare stardust particle that came from the explosive supernova death of a distant star. This speck, it seems, is locked within an ancient meteorite.  The grain of dust, though small, can help tell a story of stellar life, death and rebirth that spans almost the entire 13.8 billion-year history of the cosmos. It could also allow scientists to unlock the secrets of a recently discovered type of star that dies in a unique supernova explosion. “These particles are like celestial time capsules, providing a snapshot into…

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Astronomers may have solved the mystery of how some of the brightest and hottest stars in the cosmos are born.  The team, led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), found clues that suggest blue supergiants are created when two stars in a binary system spiral together and merge.  B-type blue supergiant stars are at least 10,000 times brighter, two to five times hotter and 16 to 40 times more massive than the sun. Blue supergiants are so extreme that scientists have theorized that they may have…

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