Stars | Page 4 of 66 | Astronomy.com

Winter Constellations

Observing, Stars

Five almost-famous stars worth gazing at

The constellation Orion the Hunter hosts two of the 10 brightest stars in the sky, Betelgeuse and Rigel. At magnitude 0.5 and 0.2, respectively, Betelgeuse (orange star at upper left) and Rigel (blue-white star at lower right) stand in stark contrast to many of the surrounding stars.

Why do astronomers measure stars in magnitudes?

NGC 2623 is a great example of what a pair of interacting galaxies looks like, 260 million light-years distant. Galaxies need mergers or other cosmic events to perturb different regions and trigger star formation and galaxy evolution.

Survivors from the Milky Way’s birth

Hubble image of variable star RS Puppis

How do Cepheid variables indicate distance?

NGC 4449

Galaxies, Science, Stars

Gemini North celebrates its 25th birthday with a glorious photo of NGC 4449

JWST image of the Serpens Nebula

In a first, JWST captures ultra-detailed image of aligned jets in the Serpens Nebula

The constellations Corona Borealis, Hercules, and more

Observing, Stars, Upcoming Events

How to see T Coronae Borealis, the ‘brightest nova of the generation’

Exoplanets, Science

The most common planets in the universe might be rich in carbon

The oldest stars in the universe were swallowed by the Milky Way

When stars “die,” they leave one of two objects behind. Massive stars explode as supernovae, creating remnants of gas and dust like the Crab Nebula (M1). Credit: ASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)

Milky Way, Stars

How many stars die in the Milky Way each year?

The very center of globular cluster NGC 6397

How do globular clusters remain intact for so long?

The Orion nebula as seen by the JWST, appears like a pillowy, colorful, massive cloud of gas and dust.

Exoplanets, Stars

JWST spots oceans’ worth of water evaporating from a star’s planet-forming disk