Orion is one of the oldest recognized constellations and contains two of the brightest stars in the sky, Rigel and Betelgeuse. Since it is visible from both hemispheres, the Orion constellation has also featured prominently […]
The constellation Ursa Major is not only the third biggest of all the 88 recognized constellations, taking up an area of 1279.66 square degrees, or 3.10% of the night sky, but it is also one […]
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 […]
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 […]
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