Is this the brightest star in the galaxy? Celestial body blazes with light of 3.2million suns Posted: 5 months ago by AutumnLotus
Astronomers believe they may have discovered the brightest star in the Milky Way amid a swirling cloud of colourful stellar dust.
Nicknamed the 'Peony nebula star', the celestial body blazes with the light of 3.2million suns in the centre of our galaxy.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 225 [+].
Tiny Star Unleashes Huge Explosion Posted: 7 months ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 260 [+].
Black Hole Rips Apart Screaming Star Posted: 7 months ago by AutumnLotus
In a distant galaxy, a star orbiting a massive central black hole strays too close to the insatiable giant and is torn apart. But before it can be devoured, the star lets out one last scream in a flare of light that slowly echoes across the galaxy. Astronomers on Earth pick up this faint call and use it to map the nucleus of the galaxy from which it emanated.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 286 [+].
Astronomers Spot Exploding Faraway Star Posted: 2 years ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 50 [+].
'Solar Flare' Detected From Star 150 Light Years Away Posted: 12 months ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 176 [+].
Star eats star and builds planets from the crumbs Posted: 10 months ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 261 [+].
New View of Distant Galaxy Reveals Furious Star Formation Posted: 12 months ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 200 [+].
An Oxygen Factory in a Nearby Galaxy Posted: 9 months ago by AutumnLotus
This Chandra X-ray Observatory image shows the debris of a massive star explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy about 160,000 light years from Earth. The supernova remnant (SNR) shown here, N132D, is the brightest in the Magellanic clouds, and belongs to a rare class of oxygen-rich remnants. Most of the oxygen that we breathe on Earth is thought to have come from explosions similar to this one.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 182 [+].
The drifting star: Astronomers 'listen' to an exoplanet-host star and find its birthplace Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 354 [+].
Scientists break speed of light Posted: 2 years ago by TheStep
The clever boffins have finally managed to break the speed of light. A light pulse was so fast that it "exited a specially-prepared chamber before it even finished entering it."
Comments: 15 Score: [-] 201 [+].
The Last Confessions of a Dying Star Posted: 9 months ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 190 [+].
Secrets of Sun-like star probed Posted: 2 years ago by AutumnLotus
It confirms that Altair, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, is a rapidly spinning, non-spherical body.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 79 [+].
'Let there be light' genesis moment in a computer Posted: 4 months ago by AutumnLotus
A primitive star has been born in the heart of a computer, revealing how the basic building blocks of life were present soon after the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago. Stars convert light elements such as helium and hydrogen into the heavier elements necessary for life and it has often been remarked that human beings are glorified stardust.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 238 [+].
Star light, star bright: FSU facility duplicating conditions of supernovas Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
How is matter created? What happens when stars die? Is the universe shrinking, or is it expanding? For decades, scientists have been looking for answers to such "big picture" questions. For the past few months, members of the department of physics at Florida State University have begun using a groundbreaking new research facility to conduct experiments that may help provide answers to just such questions.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 157 [+].
Supernova blazed like 100 billion suns Posted: 1 year ago by DrNothing
Robert Quimby (tee-hee) has an unusual distinction among astronomers. The Caltech postdoctoral researcher has discovered the two brightest star explosions ever witnessed, within months of each other.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 148 [+].
New Risk to Earth Found in Supernova Explosions Posted: 11 months ago by AutumnLotus
An explosive star within our galaxy is showing signs of an impending eruption, at least in a cosmic time frame, and has for quite some time. From 1838 to 1858, the star called Eta Carinae brightened to rival the light of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and then faded to a dim star. Since 1940 it has been brightening again, and scientists think Eta Carinae will detonate in 10,000 to 20,000 years.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 213 [+].
New Type of Dying Star Discovered Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
A rare new kind of star may have been discovered. It is much like the white dwarf our own sun should eventually become—save for a mysterious shroud of carbon ash. The findings could shed light on the life and death of stars, astronomers said.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 276 [+].
Your Birthday Star Posted: 1 year ago by KingKoopa
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 naked eye in good viewing conditions.
Comments: 9 Score: [-] 144 [+].
Moon will block bright star Regulus Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 116 [+].
Youngest Exploding Star Discovered Posted: 7 months ago by AutumnLotus
About 140 years ago, our time, a stellar explosion lit up our galaxy with a blinding flash of light, sending out powerful shock waves to boot. Now, astronomers have spotted the youthful remains from the explosion.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 353 [+].
Star duo are biggest yet Posted: 1 year ago by DrNothing
The two most massive stars ever discovered are circling each other 20,000 light years away near the centre of the Milky Way. The heavier of the two is 114 times as massive as the Sun – so big that according to some astronomers it should have blown itself to pieces.
Comments: 6 Score: [-] 33 [+].