Explore the Night Sky's Most Notable Stars & Properties

Life Cycle of a Star: Stages, Diagram & How Stars Die

Peter Christoforou — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:22:52 +0000

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 ...

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Black Neutron Star Discovered by LIGO

James Miller — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 10:08:39 +0000

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

James Miller — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 13:13:04 +0000

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?

James Miller — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 12:47:02 +0000

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

James Miller — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 16:26:08 +0000

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

James Miller — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 16:40:24 +0000

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 ...

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Star Facts: Alphard

James Miller — Sat, 12 May 2018 11:12:28 +0000

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 ...

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Star Facts: Caph

James Miller — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 15:32:16 +0000

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 ...

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Star Facts: Gamma Cassiopeia

James Miller — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 15:25:22 +0000

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 ...

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Star Facts: Schedar

James Miller — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 15:24:15 +0000

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 ...

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