Stars
Life Cycle of a Star: Stages, Diagram & How Stars Die
Stars don’t all live the same kind of life — or die the same kind of death. The reason for those very different fates lies largely in a star’s mass, which determines how quickly it …
Stars
News
Black Neutron Star Discovered by LIGO
Astronomy is very much a work in progress and our understanding of it is still lacking. Several topics in astronomy are well understood, others are approximated by complex models and simulations. Up to very recently …
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Astronomers Verify Proxima Centauri Hosts Earth-Sized Planet
Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our own Sun, and for the last 4 years there have been several hints pointing to an exoplanet orbiting it. Not just any planet, an Earth like planet. …
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What Could Be Seen From Earth If Betelgeuse Did Blow Up?
While they seem to be eternal, even stars have a lifespan. At the end of this lifespan they can die in several ways depending on their mass. Perhaps the most spectacular star death is the …
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Densest Neutron Star Found Near To Black Hole Mass
A massive neutron star only 30 kilometers across but with a mass 2.17 times that of the Sun has been discovered 4,600 light years away from Earth. MSP J0740+6620 is therefore the most massive neutron …
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Barnard’s Star Hosts a Frozen Super-Earth
The image above shows an artists’ impression of what the surface of the super-Earth orbiting Barnard’s Star might look like. However, given that the planet receives only about 2% of the light Earth receives from …
Stars
Star Facts: Alphard
Alphard (Alpha Hydrae) is an orange-colored star that has an apparent visual magnitude of +2.0, making it the brightest star in Hydra, the largest of the 88 recognized constellations. Alphard is at the midway point …
Stars
Star Facts: Caph
Caph (Beta Cassiopeiae) is a yellow-white Delta Scuti-class variable, F2-type giant star in the constellation Cassiopeia, with an apparent visual magnitude of +2.27. Along with the stars Alpheratz (Alpha Andromedae) and Algenib (Gamma Pegasi), Caph …
Stars
Star Facts: Gamma Cassiopeia
Unlike most other prominent naked-eye stars, the star Gamma Cassiopeiae does not have a traditional Latin or Arabic name, which is strange considering that the star is relatively bright with a mean apparent magnitude of …
Stars
Star Facts: Schedar
Schedar (Alpha Cassiopeiae) is a second magnitude star in the constellation Cassiopeia which despite its “Alpha” designation appears to be marginally dimmer than Beta Cassiopeiae (Caph), depending upon which frequency is used to measure Schedar’s …