Named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, but sometimes also known as the Öpik–Oort cloud, this hypothetical cloud of small, icy planetesimals is thought to surround the solar system out to a distance of more […]
Also known as the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt, this structure extends from just beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune to a distance of roughly 50-55 astronomical units from the Sun. Composed primarily of small icy bodies […]
In simple terms, a variable star is a star whose luminosity changes or fluctuates as seen from Earth. The changes in luminosity can be caused by a wide range of possible causes, some of which […]
Simply put, a neutron star is the collapsed and highly compressed remains of a relatively massive star that died in a supernova event. Neutron stars are also the smallest stars known to exist, with their […]
As a general rule, brown dwarf stars can be described as sub-stellar objects that range from between 13 and 90 Jupiter-masses. Consequently, brown dwarfs are considered a missing link between gas giant planets and small […]
Since there is no clear definition of blue giant stars, the term is frequently applied to any hot, massive star, albeit erroneously in some cases. For the most part though, blue giant stars fall into […]
While red giant stars are among the biggest stars in the Universe, they were not born that way. Red giants are for the most part normal main-sequence stars that have exhausted their supply of hydrogen, […]
Yellow dwarf stars are not true dwarf stars, at least not in the sense that red or white dwarf stars are dwarfs. Often used imprecisely, if not erroneously, the term “yellow dwarf” refers to stars […]
White dwarf stars are believed to represent the final evolutionary state of stars that are not massive enough to end their lives in super or hyper novae events. Also known as “degenerate stars”, white dwarfs […]
Unlike most other classes of stars that have clear and unambiguous classification standards, red dwarf stars fall into a wide variety of masses, luminosities, and spectra that have thus far eluded proper classification. In fact, […]
© Copyright 2017 Astronomy Trek
