Stars
Latest about Stars
![A glowing orange sphere followed by a trail of white smoke that leads to a blue and gold disk](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DrQBGUALkrXn33SJjZddpL-320-80.png)
Runaway 'failed star' races through the cosmos at 1.2 million mph
By Robert Lea published
Citizen scientists have discovered what may be a brown dwarf racing through the cosmos at around 1.2 million miles per hour. Now astronomers want to know what launched it.
![An orange orb next to a bright light blue object against a dark brown background](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FV8gK2jEH3yZHqoctTErDf-320-80.png)
21 'one-in-a-million' extreme dead stars found hiding around sun-like stars
By Robert Lea published
Astronomers have detected 21 rare systems with widely separated neutron stars and sun-like stars. These binaries are "one in a million" and challenge dead star binary formation models.
![A bright blue sphere surrounded by blue loops next to a black square containing a purple sphere grid](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/yyorPymnStyvRXtAiETzC3-320-80.png)
NASA X-ray telescope 'weighs' the closest rapidly spinning dead star to Earth
By Robert Lea published
NASA's ISS-mounted X-ray telescope NICER has weighed and measured the closest pulsar to Earth. The neutron star PSR J0437 spins 174 times a second and has a mass of 1.4 suns.
![A blue sphere surrounded by light blues loops and lines next to two purple squares filled with orange and red swirls](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/deo8A7scrKGasLMJ7CkuJE-320-80.png)
Strange 'garden sprinkler' jets are erupting from a dead vampire star
By Robert Lea published
Scientists have seen a cannibalistic neutron star spraying S-shaped jets like a cosmic garden sprinkler as it feeds on a companion star.
![An illustration of several faint brown dwarfs surrounding a galaxy, viewed from a perspective slightly above the disk. The galaxy occupies the upper left quadrant of the image as a glowing disk extending out of view. The galaxy’s center is a bright yellow glow in the upper left. The bright center rapidly fades to a more subtle glow in the outskirts of the galaxy. Dark dust clouds spiral outward from the center and obscure some of the glow. Two fully illustrated brown dwarfs are visible at the center of the image and to the left, glowing red-orange and with horizontal stripes representing bands of clouds. Several reddish points of varying sizes dot the galaxy farther away, representing the ancient brown dwarfs that could be detectable by Rubin Observatory. The background is black sprinkled with the white pinpricks of distant galaxies.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7cGS2oTbNNQSuNZrBqCjTL-320-80.png)
How the Rubin observatory could detect thousands of 'failed stars'
By Robert Lea published
"It's possible we’re swimming in a whole sea of these objects that are really faint and hard to see."
![Two white orbs on the left side of the screen. In a boxout toward the bottom right, there's a red and purple splotchy image with a yellow glowing center.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xFnmBs8b98fcnK6SQ5Uj9Y-320-80.png)
Cosmic crime scene reveals ancient supernova aftermath of dead star merger
By Robert Lea published
A "guest star," briefly seen in 1181, was created by colliding dead stars.
![On the left a purple sphere with arcs of blue emerging from and connecting at its poles next to a blue square with dark dots a white cross at its center and a green blob at the edge of a dotted white line within it](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Eod8BpeHkyihpBPuzEzJwR-320-80.png)
Rapidly spinning 'extreme' neutron star discovered by US Navy research intern
By Robert Lea published
A Navy research team intern is part of a group of astronomers who have discovered a rapidly spinning neutron star, or "pulsar," in a dense cluster of stars around 10 light-years away.
![A bright glowing purple sphere surrounded by purple loops](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3knTSmRQocYUmsoxhQiqJS-320-80.png)
Mystery of dead stars' glitching 'heartbeats' could have a twisted solution
By Robert Lea published
The 'heartbeats' of rapidly spinning neutron stars are usually highly regular, but occasionally, the spin of these dead star pulsars 'glitches.' Now, a 'twisted' model could explain this mystery.
![a bright yellow star against the blackness of space. bright pinpoints of light can be seen in the background](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cLyWa7JR3UWFzf9BZrthdU-320-80.jpg)
Once-in-a-lifetime star explosion, visible from Earth, could happen any day now
By Stefanie Waldek published
Binary star system T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) is about to go nova any day now. The recurrent nova explodes approximately every 79 or 80 years.
![A cloud of red, orange and yellow strands with a bright white gow at its heart](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7aLfeMZ5SuiEee5byhQ5Ue-320-80.png)
See a starburst galaxy, ablaze with explosive star birth, devouring dwarf galaxies (video)
By Robert Lea published
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the Gemini North telescope team has released a stunning image of starburst galaxy NGC 4449, which is ablaze with intense star birth as it devours smaller galaxies.
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