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 1 year ago

XMM-Newton has detected periodic X-ray emission, or the pulsed heartbeat of a weird new type of star. Collecting the X-rays from the so-called rotating radio transient has confirmed the nature of the underlying celestial object and given astronomers a new insight into these exotic objects. picked by AutumnLotus 8 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 1 year 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 1 year ago

Astronomers have spotted evidence of a second Earth being built around a distant star 424 light-years away. Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have spotted a huge belt of warm dust swirling around a young star called HD 113766 that is just slightly larger than our sun. picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theories of star and planet formation, and for the dynamics of our Milky Way. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

Astronomers have spotted a small group of young stellar "siblings" in a dusty stellar nursery 848 light-years away. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year 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 1 year ago

Astronomers may have found another star to add to the Southern Cross, one of the most familiar constellations in the southern sky. picked by Neiako 1 year ago

Stars always evolve in the universe in large groups, known as clusters. Astronomers distinguish these formations by their age and size. The question of how star clusters are created from interstellar gas clouds and why they then develop in different ways has now been answered by researchers at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn with the aid of computer simulations. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months 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 8 months ago

It confirms that Altair, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, is a rapidly spinning, non-spherical body. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

US astronomers have discovered the biggest black hole orbiting a star 1.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia, with a record-setting mass of 24 to 33 times that of our Sun. The massive newcomer beats the previous stellar-mass black hole discovered October 17 in the M33 galaxy that has 16 times the mass of our Sun. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months ago

A ragged company of stars is rushing through the chaotic core of our galaxy, travelling faster than can easily be explained. The new measurement of its path, made with the 10-metre Keck telescope in Hawaii, US, also deepens a mystery surrounding the Milky Way's central black hole. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

Dust has been a nuisance because it has obscured galaxies, and the stars within them, by absorbing the radiation they emit. But more recently dust has started to present opportunities because it emits radiation itself as a consequence of being heated up by nearby stars. Aided by new observing instruments and sophisticated computer software, this radiation enables astronomers to reconstruct what li... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 10 months 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 6 months ago

An international group of astronomers reported today that they have discovered that the Sun-like star tau Bootis flipped its magnetic field from north to south sometime during the last year. It has been known for many years that the Sun's magnetic field changes its direction every 11 years, but this is this is the first time that such a change has been observed in another star. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

Astronomers have found the first signature of complex organic molecules in the dust cloud around a distant star, suggesting that these building blocks of life may be a common feature of planetary systems. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months 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 8 months 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 6 months ago