Stars

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 …

Blue giant stars are hot, luminous stars that appear blue or blue-white because of their extremely high surface temperatures. The name can be slightly misleading, however, because “blue giant” is used for several kinds of …

Red giants are enormous, luminous stars that form when stars like the Sun reach the later stages of their lives. After spending billions of years steadily fusing hydrogen in their cores, these stars undergo dramatic …

Yellow dwarfs are stars much like our Sun, with similar temperatures, masses and long, stable lifespans. Despite their familiar name, however, these stars are neither necessarily yellow nor particularly small. Our Sun is the best-known …

White dwarf stars are the small, dense remnants left behind when stars like the Sun reach the end of their lives. Although a typical white dwarf is only about the size of Earth, it can …

Red dwarfs are the smallest and most common stars in the Milky Way, yet not a single one is bright enough to be seen from Earth with the naked eye. These cool, faint stars burn …

Albireo (Beta Cygni) appears as a single star marking the head of Cygnus, but a small telescope separates it into one of the night sky’s most colorful stellar pairings: a bright golden star beside a …

Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis) is a massive B-type blue supergiant star found in the Belt of Orion. With an average apparent visual magnitude of +1.69, it is the 4th brightest star in the constellation, the 29th …

Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) is a blue supergiant star in the Orion constellation, and forms part of the Hunter’s Belt along with the stars Alnilam and Mintaka. It is also the brightest O-type star in the …