Stars
A star is a massive, luminous ball of gas that is held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. A star begins as a collapsing cloud of material composed primarily of hydrogen, along with helium and trace amounts of heavier elements. Once the stellar core is sufficiently dense, some of the hydrogen is steadily converted into helium through the process of nuclear fusion. For most of its life, a star shines due to thermonuclear fusion in its core releasing energy that traverses the star's interior and then radiates into space. Almost all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were created by fusion processes in stars.
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Featured News
No Place to Hide: Missing Primitive Stars...
GARCHING, GERMANY (Feb. 18, 2010) – After years of successful concealment, the most primitive stars outside our Milky Way galaxy have finally been unmasked. New observations... More »
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Featured News
Formation of Stars in Young Clusters
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (Oct. 12, 2009) – Most stars form in clusters. Recent studies of nearby star forming regions find that about three-quarters of their... More »
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Featured News
NASA's Spitzer Spots Clump of Swirling...
NASA-JPL (Sep. 24, 2009) – Astronomers have witnessed odd behavior around a young star. Something, perhaps another star or a planet, appears to be pushing a clump of... More »
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Massive Stars Near the Galactic Center
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (Sep. 12, 2009) – The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of our galaxy is a giant complex of molecular gas and dust situated in the... More »
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Trifid Nebula: A Star Factory
European Southern Observatory (Aug. 25, 2009) – Today ESO has released a new image of the Trifid Nebula, showing just why it is a firm favourite of astronomers, amateur and... More »
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Featured News
Galaxies Demand a Stellar Recount
NASA JPL, Pasadena, CA (Aug. 20, 2009) – For decades, astronomers have gone about their business of studying the cosmos with the assumption that stars of certain sizes form in... More »
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Featured News
A Look into the Hellish Cradles of Suns and...
European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany (Aug. 21, 2009) – New images released today by ESO delve into the heart of a cosmic cloud, called RCW 38, crowded with budding... More »
Is Our Universe at Home Within a Larger Universe?
Last Updated on 2010-04-28 at 22:15
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (April 5, 2010) – Could our universe be located within the interior of a wormhole which itself is part of a black hole that lies within a much larger... More »
Astronomers See Historical Supernova From a New Angle
Last Updated on 2010-04-07 at 11:05
CAMBRIDGE, MA (April 7, 2010) – Since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sky 400 years ago, a myriad of technological advances have allowed astronomers to look at... More »
No Place to Hide: Missing Primitive Stars Outside...
Last Updated on 2010-02-19 at 16:09
GARCHING, GERMANY (Feb. 18, 2010) – After years of successful concealment, the most primitive stars outside our Milky Way galaxy have finally been unmasked. New observations... More »
Astronomers Find Rare Beast by New Means
Last Updated on 2010-02-03 at 14:19
SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO (Feb. 3, 2010) – For the first time, astronomers have found a supernova explosion with properties similiar to a gamma-ray burst, but without seeing any... More »
Black Hole Hunters Set New Distance Record
Last Updated on 2010-01-28 at 16:15
GARCHING, GERMANY (Jan. 28, 2010) – Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have detected, in another galaxy, a stellar-mass black hole much farther away than any... More »
Newborn Black Holes May Add Power to Many Exploding...
Last Updated on 2010-01-27 at 16:08
WASHINGTON, DC (Jan. 27, 2010) – Astronomers studying two exploding stars, or supernovae, have found evidence the blasts received an extra boost from newborn black holes.... More »
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