star formation

A SPHERE image of the star AB Aurigae shows it to be surrounded by a disk of gas and dust with spiral arms, an indicator that at least one planet is in the process of forming there. Credit: ESO/Boccaletti et al.
A spectacular image of a kinky spiral points toward a baby planet forming
Phil Plait
Trending on SYFY WIRE in star formation
Tag: Bad Astronomy
Tag: VLT
Tag: protoplanetary disks
Tag: Exoplanets
Tag: Nebula

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Tag: Nebula
Hubble's gorgeous 'Mystic Mountain' remastered
Phil Plait
Mar 13, 2020
Close-up of a star-forming nebula shows a young star buried in gas and dust shooting twin beams of matter from its poles.
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Tag: galaxies
A huge distant galaxy went from making billions of stars to suddenly stopping. Why?
Phil Plait
Feb 6, 2020
The hugely sprawling Tarantula Nebula, a vast star-forming complex in a nearby satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It's currently making hundreds of thousands of stars. Credit: ESO
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Tag: galaxies
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When galaxies collide, you get… a heron?
Phil Plait
Dec 20, 2019
The galaxies NGC 5394 and 5395, undergoing a very close pass that’s affecting both of them. ​​​​​​​Credit: NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/Gemini Observatory/AURA
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Tag: VLT
A billion years ago the Milky Way had a huge burst of star birth
Phil Plait
Dec 17, 2019
The central region of the Milky Way surveyed in GALACTICNUCLEUS, an infrared study of over 3 million stars. Credit: ESO/Nogueras-Lara et al.
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Tag: supermassive black holes
The wind from a galaxy's supermassive black hole helps make stars… in other galaxies
Phil Plait
Nov 27, 2019
Artist drawing of a blazar, a galaxy with a supermassive black hole spewing out energy. Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab
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Tag: Hubble Space Telescope
Happy Halloween, from a giant space tardigrade!
Phil Plait
Oct 31, 2019
A dense clump of dust in the Carina Nebula, sculpted by intense radiation of newborn stars, looks like a giant space tardigrade. Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
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Tag: Milky Way Galaxy
When it comes to making stars, galactic gas tanks are nowhere near full
Phil Plait
Aug 7, 2019
The FUGIN survey looked at a huge swath of the Milky Way (top), finding both areas of low-density gas (bottom left) and high (bottom right). The latter is where stars are born. Credit: NINS, NOAJ, Nobeyama, FOREST
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Tag: colliding galaxies
A lopsided trail of galactic destruction… and construction
Phil Plait
Jun 25, 2019
The dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 4485 has a lot of gas and star formation going on either in it or nearby, due to the influence of another galaxy.
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Tag: nebulae
Westerhout 40: A waist of space
Phil Plait
Jun 21, 2019
The star-forming nebula Westerhout 40, as seen in the far-infrared by Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Tag: Spiral Galaxies
ALMA sees 100,000 stellar nurseries in nearby galaxies
Phil Plait
Mar 26, 2019
The nearby spiral galaxy M 100 observed by ALMA (left) reveals the locations of star-forming nebulae; compare that to an image taken using the Very Large Telescope (right) in optical light
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Tag: star clusters
Radiation driven implosion!
Phil Plait
Dec 27, 2018
The cometary globule called the Dark Tower, a dark nebula being blasted by radiation from a nearby star cluster. Credit: Robert Gendler
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Tag: Spitzer Space Telescope
An ancient fading ghost of a massive star haunts the night
Phil Plait
Sep 12, 2018
The supernova remnant HBH 3 can be seen as wispy red tendrils in this Spitzer Space Telescope image. The other objects are star forming regions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC
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Tag: Planets
Astronomical birth announcement: It's a bouncing baby planet!
Phil Plait
Jul 2, 2018
Artwork of a planet forming in a young star’s disk. Credit: NAOJ
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Tag: Black Holes
The dead star, the doomed star, and their little friend
Phil Plait
May 8, 2018
Artwork depicting a black hole drawing material off its massive blue stellar companion. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
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Tag: nebulae
Orion's filaments of star birth
Phil Plait
Mar 23, 2018
Cold gas and dust in Orion form filaments with bundles of individual “fibers” about a light year long. The four bright stars (left) are the Trapezium, the center of the famous Orion Nebula. ​​​​​​​Credit: ESO/H. Drass/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/A. Hacar
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Tag: nebulae