O III · 500.7 nm
Stellar astrophysics end to end — protostars in molecular clouds, main-sequence oddities, red giants, white dwarfs, and the supernovae and kilonovae that seed everything else.
Stars & Supernovae
More than 70% of massive stars are born in close binary systems, where gravitational tugs and mass transfer between companions dramatically alter their evolution. Yet once the interaction ends—whether through mass transfer, merger or the supernova explosion of one partner—the…
Tekeba Olbemo et al 2026 ApJ 1004 38 New constraints on the mass of V1674 Herculis from X-ray observations place the white dwarf around 1.09 solar masses, well below the near-Chandrasekhar mass proposed in previous works.
The star at the heart of the oft-observed Helix Nebula powered a clumpy wind before it died. Now, new images capture these clumps’ dissolution into the space between stars.
James Webb has captured a striking new infrared view of NGC 2392, the Lion Nebula, revealing the dramatic aftermath of a dying Sun-like star. At its center, a scorching white dwarf is blasting radiation into surrounding gas and dust, carving out the nebula’s lion-like face while…
A supernova discovered in 2010 appears to have created tens of thousands of Earth masses of dust.
Like a collage made of layered sheets of colored cellophane, a vibrant new image layers observations of a famous star-forming nebula from NASA's space telescopes. The resulting cosmic "craft" reveals new details about the star-forming region known as 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula…
Astronomers have nearly doubled the number of known cosmic X-ray sources.
Astronomers were fortunate when the Einstein Probe detected the difficult-to-observe initial shock break out (SBO) from a supernova. The SBO is the first electromagnetic indication that a star is going to explode, and by observing it and the aftermath, researchers were able to…
University of Missouri researchers have uncovered evidence that challenges one of astronomy's most trusted assumptions, a breakthrough that could reshape how scientists measure galaxies and reconstruct the history of the universe.
The Lion Nebula glows gloriously in this new snapshot from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Aquila the Eagle is home to the bright star Altair, which forms one corner in the Summer Triangle. Look for it in the evening sky from July to November. The post Aquila the Eagle soars along the Milky Way first appeared on EarthSky .
Astronomers may have spotted the crumbs of a recently eaten asteroid around a white dwarf star.
Tian-Xian Luo et al 2026 ApJ 1003 152 Polarization measurements show evidence of shock compression and possible interaction between a supernova remnant and previously formed circumstellar shells from the progenitor’s mass loss.
Image: This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month takes us to a fantastical realm within our home galaxy , where piercing starlight and billowing winds sculpt dust clouds into inventive shapes. This scene is from the Carina Nebula, which lies just 7500…
Astrobites reports on a whodunit of cosmic significance: who killed star formation in massive elliptical galaxies?
Mayura Balakrishnan et al 2026 ApJ 1003 128 Sgr A East strongly overlaps with plasma associated with the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, but new efforts to disentangle this emission have successfully isolated the remnant’s emission.
Md Redyan Ahmed et al 2026 AJ 172 21 Slightly smaller than Jupiter but roughly 80 times as massive, TOI-2155b can provide a valuable test for models of stellar-mass objects near the hydrogen-burning mass limit.
Primordial black holes may occasionally pass through white dwarf stars and trigger enormous Type Ia supernova explosions. Researchers found that these events could explain chemical patterns seen in supernova remnants, nearby explosions, and stars across the Milky Way.
Scientists traced a mysterious surge of low-energy gamma rays from zinc-70 to magnetic changes occurring inside its nucleus. The breakthrough could improve models of how stars, supernovae, and neutron star mergers create heavy elements.
Susanne Pfalzner et al 2026 ApJ 1003 119 The disks around young high-mass stars survive for roughly 3.72 million years, and those around low-mass stars survive for 7.20 million years, though the distributions for both populations are quite broad.
Lulu Xu et al 2026 ApJS 284 54 Of 7,229 flares from 1,430 stars, most came from stars with temperatures below 4000K and rotation periods shorter than 4 days; most flares lasted less than 2 hours.
Astrobites reports on the interplay between the interstellar medium and star formation in simulated galaxies.
At long last, astronomers have firm evidence that Betelgeuse, one of the most famous stars in the night sky, is not alone. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), a team led by French researcher Miguel Montargès obtained the clearest image…
Wen-Fan Feng et al 2026 ApJL 1003 L35 According to calculations, in a 4-year period researchers may detect of order one compact binary system in which the binary’s inspiral and the spin of its neutron star component both produce gravitational waves.
Dying Sun-like stars may not fade away quietly. As blobs of gas erupt unevenly from their swollen surfaces, each burst gives the star a tiny push in the opposite direction. Thousands of these random kicks could eventually break apart distant stellar pairs or, in rare cases…
The galaxies FCC 224 and FCC 240 appear to be a rare example of a dark-matter-poor, globular-cluster-rich pair formed via colliding dwarf galaxies.
A distant Sun-like star appears to have devoured one of its planets, leaving behind a surprising chemical fingerprint. Researchers found an unusually high concentration of lithium, a strong sign that planetary material was mixed into the star. Careful comparisons with dozens of…
White dwarfs with metals in their spectra preserve a record of planets that once orbited them. New research examines these spectra for signs that the metals underwent technological processing.
Four nearby white dwarf stars have been discovered hiding in plain sight beside brighter red dwarf companions. Hubble's ultraviolet observations finally revealed the long-hidden stellar remnants, including one just 25 light-years away that took nearly three decades to confirm…
Gourav Kumawat et al 2026 AJ 171 306 Analysis of blue straggler stars in 56 Milky Way globular clusters finds no evidence for a bimodal distribution in color–magnitude space due to differing formation pathways.
Scientists have identified new clues that could help astronomers spot one of the most famous hypothetical alien megastructures: a Dyson sphere. The study finds that red dwarfs and white dwarfs are the most promising stars to examine, since advanced civilizations could…
Do all clusters form stars with the same distribution of masses? Researchers have demonstrated that the initial mass function, often assumed to be universal, varies across Milky Way clusters.
New analysis of JWST observations suggests that the Bullet Cluster of galaxies might only have half as much dark matter as previously believed
Astrobites reports on whether some of the most massive galaxies in the early universe are truly quenched, or if they're just hiding their star formation behind dust.
Jing Lu et al 2026 ApJL 1002 L11 Though Type Ic supernovae are classified in part by the lack of helium lines in their spectra, recent modeling of a near-infrared supernova spectrum suggests that helium is present but undetectable in the optical.
A recent study has leveraged TESS's full-sky coverage to build a catalog of stellar rotation periods for over a million stars.
What's behind the population of compact, reddish objects spotted by JWST? Two recent research articles have explored theories involving young globular clusters and little red dots with little blue companions.
Clecio R. Bom et al 2026 ApJL 1001 L37 The combination of data and binary neutron star merger simulations shows that the source of GRB 230307A is unlikely to be a globular cluster; a disk origin is possible but requires finely tuned conditions.
NASA ·
NOIRLab/NSF/AURA ·
APOD · Marcin Rosadziński ·
The vocabulary below is the actual list this subject is matched on — nothing is hidden and nothing is inferred. Terms on the top line settle it on their own; the second line counts, but needs company.
supernovakilonovanova outburstneutron starwhite dwarfred giantprotostarstellar nurserystar-forming regionstar formationmagnetarpulsarbrown dwarfstellar evolutionmain sequenceglobular clusteropen clusterplanetary nebulawolf-rayetbetelgeusecepheid
nebulastellar windbinary starvariable starred dwarfblue supergiantsupernova remnantmolecular cloudnucleosynthesisstar cluster
