Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and W. M. Keck Observatory have found a lopsided debris disk around a young star known as HD 15115. As seen from Earth, the edge-on disk resembles a needle sticking out from the star. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Probing a glowing bubble of gas and dust encircling a dying star, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals a wealth of previously unseen structures. The object, called NGC 2371, is a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The remnant star visible at the center of NGC 2371 is the super-hot core of the former red giant, now stripped of its outer layers. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Using observations from ESO's VLT, astronomers were able for the first time to reconstruct the site of a flare on a solar-like star located 150 light years away. The study of this young star, nicknamed 'Speedy Mic' because of its fast rotation, will help scientists better understand the youth of our Sun. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

A massive exploding faraway star _ the brightest supernova astronomers have ever seen _ has scientists wondering whether a similar celestial fireworks show may light up the sky much closer to Earth sometime soon. picked by AutumnLotus 3 years ago

An unusual star may have swallowed its stellar companion and burped out a planet-forming cloud as a result, a new study reports. The star, called BP Piscium, is surrounded by a thick disc of gas and dust from which it appears to be sucking up new material at a prodigious rate. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

For the first time, astronomers have observed the initial phase in the formation of an earth-like planet. What astronomers observed was that a protoplanetary disk, or ring, around the binary star known as KH 15D, is composed of solid particles larger than what is usually observed in space. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Wikisky is a draggable, zoomable, web-based star map. If you click on a star or other object, it brings upvall the information you could want on it, including recent articles and photos. That and much more. picked by 2manyusernames 3 years ago

Star Wars Vs. Star Trek: The Infamous DMP Edition.... picked by Bornbad 12 months ago

University of Arizona astronomers who are probing the oxygen-rich environment around a supergiant star with one of the world's most sensitive radio telescopes have discovered a score of molecules that include compounds needed for life. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg have discovered the youngest known extrasolar planet. Its host star is still surrounded by the disk of gas and dust from which it was only recently born. This discovery allows scientists to draw important conclusions about the timing of planet formation. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

A team of astronomers from Penn State and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland has discovered a new planet that is closely orbiting a red-giant star, HD 102272, which is much older than our own Sun. The planet has a mass that is nearly six times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

Astronomers have announced the discovery of a fifth planet circling 55 Cancri, a star beyond our solar system. The star now holds the record for number of confirmed extrasolar planets orbiting in a planetary system. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

A furious rate of star formation discovered in a distant galaxy shows that galaxies in the early universe developed either much faster or in a different way from what astronomers have thought. The galaxy is forming the equivalent of 4,000 Suns a year. This is a thousand times more violent than our own Milky Way galaxy. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

A massive young star seems to have exploded before its time, new Hubble Space Telescope images reveal. The star, the heftiest to have been linked to a supernova explosion, could challenge models of when stellar furnaces end their lives. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago

Input your birthday and find your birthday star! A birthday star is a star whose light left said star about the time you were born. Mine is in the constellation Eridanus. It is called 40 Eridani in the Historia Cœlestis Britannica of John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. It is called NS 0415-0739 A in the NStars database. It has visual magnitude 4.43 meaning that you could see this star with the ... read full post picked by KingKoopa 2 years ago

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular image of NGC 3603, a giant nebula hosting one of the most prominent massive young clusters in the Milky Way, thus supplying a prime template for star formation studies. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

A large star in its death throes is leaving a huge, turbulent tail of oxygen, carbon and nitrogen in its wake that makes it look like an immense comet hurtling through space. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

A tiny star recently unleashed what is considered the brightest burst of light ever seen in the universe from a normal star. Shining with only 1 percent of the sun's light and boasting just a third of the sun's mass, this run-of-the-mill star previously was nothing to write home about. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

According to the Bible, when Jesus was born three Magi saw a star in the East that signaled the birth of a new king. But just what was it, from an astronomical point or view, that the Magi actually saw? Fred Grosse, a professor of physics and astronomy at Susquehanna University, gives scientific explanations for the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

If you live in the southern or western parts of the United States, you'll have an opportunity on Nov. 3 to see a fat waning crescent moon gradually drift toward and ultimately hide the 1st-magnitude star, Regulus, the brightest star of the constellation Leo, the Lion. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago