Stars

What are stars? Credit: Eric Lowenbach / Getty Images

Astronomy explained What are stars?

How do astronomers name stars and catalogue the night sky? Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

How do astronomers name stars?

The night sky over Lake Tekapo, New Zealand. Credit: Nigel Killeen / Getty Images

Astrophotography

Astrophotography guide How to photograph the stars

5 star clusters to see with the naked eye. Credit: Bryce Crage / Getty Images

Observing guide 5 star clusters to see with the naked eye

Globular cluster NGC 3201, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. What makes stars twinkle? Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgement: Sarajedini et al.

Astronomy explained Why do stars twinkle?

Two Herbig-Haro objects can be seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image, catalogued as HH46 and HH47. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Nisini

Eye On The Sky Hubble spots Herbig Haro stellar shockwaves

With four other Plough stars, Merak is a member of the Ursa Major Moving Group, as shown by the blue arrows. Credit: Pete Lawrence

Observing guide Spot star Merak at the bottom of the Plough

The Plough / Ursa Major. Credit: Christophe Lehenaff / Getty Images

Mizar and Alcor: the Plough’s famous double star

An artist's impression of Thuban, an eclipsing binary star. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)

6-star system discovered in which every star undergoes an eclipse

Artist's impression of hypervelocity star HE 0437-5439, which has been booted out of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

The mystery of the Milky Way’s runaway stars

The three wise men. Credit: Mlenny / Getty Images

Star of Bethlehem: did it really exist?

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