Stars are not fixed and unchanging, as many ancient people thought. Sometimes a star appears where it was not before, and then disappears within a few days or weeks. The earliest record of such a “guest star,” as it was called by ancient Chinese astronomers, is that of a star that suddenly appeared in the… Read More »
Our Sun is known for occasional bursts of energy called solar flares, which can trigger space weather that can disrupt communications and power infrastructure on Earth. But we should really be grateful that we don’t exist around a star that explodes in so-called “superbursts,” which can be 100 to 10,000 times more energetic than even… Read More »
A binary star system in the constellation Corona Borealis consists of a white dwarf that pulls in material from a neighboring red giant, resulting in extraordinarily bright explosions every 79 to 80 years. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center – image source) Starlight, star bright, will there be a new star tonight? That’s the question astronomers… Read More »
Massive stars gain their magnetism by colliding and merging with other stars, according to evidence from a strange binary system surrounded by a dusty, element-rich nebula. This bipolar nebula, which has the double designation NGC 6164/6165, contains the star system HD 148937. light years Far away in the southern constellation Norma, HD 148937 contains two… Read More »