When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A simulation of a black hole ripping apart an unlucky star and throwing it into the sky “like a bad curry”. | Credit: Daniel Price (2024) “What happens if you throw a star at a black hole?” This … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. An object spotted with the help of citizen scientists was moving so fast through the Milky Way that it escaped the galaxy’s gravity and reached intergalactic space, new research shows. Probably a faint red star, … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. An object spotted with the help of citizen scientists was moving so fast through the Milky Way that it escaped the galaxy’s gravity and reached intergalactic space, new research shows. Probably a faint red star, … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. In 1181, a dying star left a trail in the night sky for six months. The striking object appeared as bright as Saturn near the constellation Cassiopeia, and historical chronicles from China and Japan recorded … Read more
For the past three weeks, Bob Stephens has trained his telescope on the same two stars every clear night in the hope of witnessing one of the most violent events in the universe: a nova explosion 100,000 times brighter than the Sun. The outburst, which scientists say could happen at any moment, has attracted interest … Read more
When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An illustration shows a runaway brown dwarf escaping from a spiral galaxy. | Credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)/NASA A recently discovered anomalous stellar body may be a “failed star,” but in terms of speed, it’s certainly not … Read more
When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An illustration of a sun-like star with a hidden neutron star orbiting it. | Credit: Caltech/Kareem El-Badry Astronomers have discovered 21 “one-in-a-million” binary star systems in which sun-like stars orbit a hidden “dead star,” an extremely dense and … Read more
One week you’re working quietly for the NHS in occupational health, the next week you’re rubbing shoulders with world leaders at a NATO summit in Washington as the (unofficial) ‘first lady’ of the UK. It’s been quite a transition for Lady Starmer, a woman who’s largely remained in the shadows during her husband’s rise from … Read more
“All good things must come to an end.” That adage applies both in the cosmos and on Earth. We are aware that stars, like everything else, must die. When the fuel supply needed for nuclear fusion in their cores runs out, stars of all sizes collapse under their own gravity and die out, forming a … Read more
Scientists have directly imaged eight dim objects in Gaia’s data catalog that accompany very bright stars, including so-called “failed stars,” also known as brown dwarfs. The stars and their companions were originally identified from millions of stars in the Gaia catalog. They were considered ideal for follow-up research with the ground-based GRAVITY instrument, an advanced … Read more