Stars

Westerlund-1, one of the most massive star clusters in the Milky Way. ALMA observations (red), superposed on a Hubble image, indicate several of the stars are enshrouded in warm dust. Credit: ESO/D. Fenech et al.; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
Westerlund-1: A star cluster full of monsters
Phil Plait

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Tag: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek vs. Red Dwarf: The Battle of Wolf 359
Phil Plait
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The Sun (left) is six times wider than Wolf 359 (middle, actually an image of the Sun in ultraviolet shrunk to the right scale), which is 60% wider than Jupiter (right).
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Tag: Hubble Space Telescope
Downtown Sagittarius is a busy place
Phil Plait
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A Hubble image of a region of the sky in Sagittarius reveals thousands of stars of all different colors. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
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The recurrent exploding nova R Aquarii: Unlucky Stars
Phil Plait
May 24, 2019
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A composite image of R Aquarii in optical light (red) and X-rays (blue); the jets emit X-rays due to the strong magnetic fields present. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/R. Montez et al.; Optical: Adam Block/Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter/U. Arizona
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Tag: Black Holes
A black hole in a distant galaxy has been eating a star… for more than a *decade*!
Phil Plait
May 15, 2019
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Artwork depicting a black hole eating a star, the ferocious tides tearing the star apart. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
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When the first stars in the Universe exploded, they *really* exploded
Phil Plait
May 10, 2019
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Artwork depicting beams of matter and energy tearing through a massive blue star, creating a hypernova and gamma-ray burst. Credit: NASA/Dana Berry/Skyworks Digital
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Tag: galaxies
Gaia: The sky is littered with undigested galaxies
Phil Plait
Apr 22, 2019
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Stars in some of the stellar streams recently discovered using Gaia data superposed on a map of the galaxy. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC
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Hubble gets crabby for its 29th anniversary
Phil Plait
Apr 19, 2019
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The Southern Crab nebula, a huge structure caused by the winds of a dying star. Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI
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How can you measure a star's size? Wait for an asteroid to block it.
Phil Plait
Apr 17, 2019
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Artwork depicting an asteroid occulting a distant star, with the diffraction pattern of the star exaggerated for effect. Credit: DESY, Lucid Berlin
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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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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: 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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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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