Stars

A DECam image showing the bulge of the Milky Way: part of a survey of 250 million stars. Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA. Acknowledgment: Image processing: W. Clarkson (UM-Dearborn), C. Johnson (STScI), and M. Rich (UCLA), Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin.

Milky Way bulge imaged in survey of 250 million stars

An artist’s impression shows how the Universe’s first, massive, blue stars are embedded in gaseous filaments. Credit: N.R.Fuller/National Science Foundation

How did the first stars affect the evolution of the Universe?

Artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disc. Our Solar System may have looked like this in its infancy. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

What is stardust?

A stream of charged particles emanating from red giant star R Aquilae. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Decin et al.

Eye On The Sky Stellar winds from red giant star produce cosmic floral pattern

What happens when a planet orbits two stars at once? Credit: Rastan/istock/getty images

What happens when exoplanets orbit two stars at once?

Free-floating Gaseous Globules. Credit ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sahai

Eye On The Sky Star-forming globules seen in cosmic bubble of hot ionised gas

M16. Credit: Gerald Rhemann.

Star clusters: an astronomer’s guide

The misaligned planet-forming discs around triple star system GW Orionis. Credit: ESO/Exeter/Kraus et al., ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

Eye On The Sky Mis-aligned rings detected in disc around triple-star system

Albireo in Cygnus, imaged by Alexander Wilson.

Double stars and binary stars: a guide

The red giant star Betelgeuse (the prominent orange-red star above centre in this image), as it appears in the constellation of Orion. Credit: Rolf Löhr / CCDGuide.com

Track the life and death of stars in the night sky

A Thorne-Zytkow Object: a neutron star trapped inside a red giant. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada,

5 hypothetical stars astronomers have yet to discover

G286.21+0.17. Image credit ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Y. Cheng et al.; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello; NASA/ESA Hubble

Eye On The Sky The chaos of starbirth captured 8,000 lightyears away

Þ The coolest stars are red with surface temperatures around 3,000°C and the hottest are white at a toasty 40,000°C. Credit: Christian Darkin / Science Photo Library

The colour of stars

Artist's impression of a gamma-ray burst. Credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/istock/getty images

What is a gamma ray burst?

ALMA image of the planet-forming disk around the young star RU Cup. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Huang; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello

Star’s spiral disc calls planetary formation model into question