Stunning Pinwheel Nebula Is a Cosmic Cataclysm in the Making
This image of a dusty, gas-rich nebula looks pretty, but appearances can be deceiving. Known as a Wolf-Rayet star…
A Zombie Star Just Went Thermonuclear
In 2009, a binary star that had been flaring up for years suddenly exploded, growing millions of times brighter in a…
The Terrifying Reason This Star Flickers Every Two Minutes
Some 380 light years away in the constellation Scorpius lies a star that has puzzled astronomers for over 40 years.…
These Star-Crossed Stellar Lovers Are Heading for a Disaster of Cosmic Proportions
Behold VFTS 352, the hottest and most massive “overcontact binary” star system ever discovered. The two stars, which…
Tatooine-Like Planets May Be More Common Than We Thought
For decades, astronomers have assumed that Earth-like planets cannot form around binary stars on account of wacky…
NASA'S First Glimpse Inside Eta Carinae Uncovers Surprising Features
The Eta Carinae binary star system erupted twice in the 19th century, creating a stunning and rapidly expanding debris…
What Will Happen When These Massive Blue Stars Finally Fuse Together?
European astronomers have detected an unprecedented binary system featuring two hot blue O-type stars in orbits so…
We Finally Know What That Weird Cloud Is At The Center Of Our Galaxy
For years, astronomers have been fascinated and perplexed by what appears to be a massive cloud of gas and dust…
Hot Jupiters Create Chaos for Their Stars
New research shows that star-snuggling hot Jupiters, despite being only a thousandth of the mass of their host suns,…
This Is Probably The Weirdest Binary Star System Ever Discovered
There's some strange things floating around in our galaxy, but this has to be one of the weirdest. A double star system…
A Supernova You Can Hold In The Palm Of Your Hand
Last century, a massive binary system went supernova, ejecting at least 10 times the mass of our Sun into space. NASA…
We've Discovered a Binary Star System Whose Planet Is in Stable Orbit
It may not be anything like Tatooine of Star Wars, but this discovery is still incredible. We've found a frozen, rocky…
Two Suns Could Raise The Chances Of A Moon Supporting Life
Moons in close binary solar systems have a better chance of hosting life than those in single-star systems, new…
An entirely new class of galaxy-escaping hypervelocity stars
Every once in a while, the Milky Way's supermassive black hole flings a wayward star into intergalactic space at speeds…
The paradox of the demon star
There is a demon's head winking at us every few nights. It's brightest during the winter months, so you might be able…
The first picture ever of a Tatooine-like binary star system. Maybe.
What you're looking at here is the first direct imaging of a planet orbiting a pair of stars. Trouble is, the planet is…
Astronomers discover binary stars in 'impossibly' tight orbits
A team of scientists using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii have found four different pairs of…
Black holes get fat on tasty, tasty stars
We already know that black holes swallow stars — and entire solar systems — but what effect does a stellar diet have on…
Binary stars could be causing massive planetary collisions
Three different sets of binary stars - two stars locked in orbit around each other - are surrounded by huge clouds of…