Stars

Artwork depicting an asteroid occulting a distant star, with the diffraction pattern of the star exaggerated for effect. Credit: DESY, Lucid Berlin
How can you measure a star's size? Wait for an asteroid to block it.
Phil Plait

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Tag: Science
Tag: Bad Astronomy
Tag: red dwarfs
Rocky worlds around red dwarfs may get blasted clean of water
Phil Plait
Jan 16, 2019
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Hubble/STIS images of AU Mic taken a few years apart show the motion of a blob moving outward from the star. Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Wisniewski (University of Oklahoma), C. Grady (Eureka Scientific), and G. Schneider (Steward Observatory)
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Tag: space
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The sun is destined to turn into a gargantuan crystal ball after it dies
Elizabeth Rayne
Jan 11, 2019
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ESA image of a crystallized white dwarf
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Tag: space
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Tag: galaxies
Overlapping galaxies
Phil Plait
Jan 8, 2019
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Two overlapping galaxies, some 800 million light years away, were captured by Hubble accidentally while viewing a much closer galaxy (NGC 253, off screen to the right).
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Tag: globular clusters
A distant box of jewels
Phil Plait
Jan 4, 2019
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The spectacular globular cluster NGC 1466. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
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Tag: Gamma Rays
Measuring all the light in the Universe. All of it. Ever.
Phil Plait
Nov 30, 2018
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Omega Centauri
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Tag: Sun
The Sun's long-lost sibling found in our own backyard
Phil Plait
Nov 21, 2018
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The Sun may have been born in an open cluster, a loose collection of stars that has since dissipated, scattering the stars. This image shows NGC 299, an open cluster in a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
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Tag: Stars
Big news: A planet for Barnard’s Star… the fourth closest star to our own!
Phil Plait
Nov 15, 2018
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Artwork of a super-Earth, Barnard’s Star b, orbiting its red dwarf host star. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
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Tag: red dwarfs
Young red dwarfs throw mean tantrums. A lot.
Phil Plait
Oct 25, 2018
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Artist depiction of a young red dwarf star blasting out flares that erode the atmosphere of a nearby planet. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Player (STScI)
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Tag: Stars
A sense of scale: VFX artist shows you how big the biggest stars are
Phil Plait
Oct 24, 2018
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Stars are big. Credit: Wren Weichman, from the video
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Tag: Science Behind the Fiction
Tag: A Star Is Born
Science Behind the Fiction: How a star is really born
Cassidy Ward
Oct 10, 2018
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A Star Is Born real
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Tag: binary stars
Long-standing astronomical mystery solved! Albireo is NOT a binary star
Phil Plait
Aug 15, 2018
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The double star (and not binary) Albireo, or Beta Cygni, the color difference obvious. Credit: Tom Wildoner
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Tag: Black Holes
Astronomers watch the aftermath of a star ripped apart by a middleweight black hole
Phil Plait
Jun 27, 2018
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Artwork_blackhole_starArtist’s conception of a star getting eaten by a black hole, with material ripped from the falling down into the black hole and forming a hot disk. Credit: ESA, NASA and Felix Mirabel
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Tag: Black Holes
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Tag: galaxies
Astronomers watch the aftermath of a star ripped apart by a huge black hole
Phil Plait
Jun 19, 2018
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Artwork depicting a star torn apart by a black hole in Arp 299, with a beam of material blasting away. Credit: Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF; NASA, STScI
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Tag: galaxies
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Tag: Stars
Get ready: A star will pass pretty close to the Sun in just 1.3 million years
Phil Plait
Jun 4, 2018
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Gleise 710 (center), an orange dwarf, will one day become the closest star to our Sun. Credit: SIMBAD / DSS
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Tag: TESS
First light for TESS!
Phil Plait
May 21, 2018
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A chunk of sky near Beta Centauri (the bright star near the bottom) seen by the TESS spacecraft in its very first image. Credit: NASA / MIT / TESS
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Tag: TESS