star articles - Page: 3
Why are stars called dwarfs?
The classification of stars into categories like "dwarf" can often sound counterintuitive when we look up at the night s...
Are there stars that live forever?
The concept of a star living forever seems to clash with our observations of exploding supernovae and dimming remnants, ...
What is the main reason for the low star formation in elliptical galaxies?
The silent grandeur of **elliptical galaxies** often belies a long and dramatic history. Unlike their spiral cousins, wh...
What slows the contraction of a star-forming cloud?
The process by which a vast, cold, tenuous cloud of gas and dust gives birth to a star is fundamentally a contest: the r...
Why don't stars fall out of the sky?
The notion that stars might suddenly detach from the heavens and drop toward Earth is a dramatic image, but it rests on ...
What were stars before they were stars?
The material that eventually ignited to become the universe’s first stars existed in a state profoundly different from t...
What came before the stars?
The grand cosmic tapestry we observe today, peppered with countless galaxies, nebulae, and the familiar glow of establis...
Why did I just see a line of stars moving?
That sudden appearance of a perfectly straight, evenly spaced line of bright dots marching silently across the dark sky ...
How do stars begin their life?
The vast, cold reaches of interstellar space are not entirely empty; they are peppered with colossal clouds of gas and d...
What was before the stars?
The universe, in its infancy, was a place vastly different from the star-studded expanse we observe tonight. Before the ...
What are all stars called as they begin their lives?
The grand, shimmering lights we see overhead have an entire biography, an evolution written across billions of years, di...
What kind of evidence suggests that there is not much star formation happening in elliptical galaxies?
The visual contrast between different galaxy types immediately suggests differences in their current activity levels. Sp...
Why do all stars contain hydrogen?
The vast majority of the material making up every star in existence is, simply put, the leftover building blocks from th...
Which type of galaxy contains mostly older stars?
When we gaze into the cosmos, the sheer variety of galaxies can seem overwhelming, but astronomers simplify this vastnes...
What stars are good for life?
The search for life beyond Earth inevitably centers on finding the right kind of star to anchor a habitable world. It's ...
What is a galaxy made up of gas, dust, and stars?
Galaxies are vast, gravitationally bound systems composed of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and an imp...
Which stars are low-mass stars?
The universe is populated by stars of every imaginable size and temperature, but among them, the low-mass stars are by f...
Why is it highly unlikely that any of the stars in a globular cluster would have planets?
The very idea of a star system existing within a dense globular cluster often feels counterintuitive, given our familiar...
What stars are visible in October?
The transition into autumn brings with it wonderfully crisp air, which is the perfect antidote to summer haze, making Oc...
What information does the light from a star tell us?
The light that travels across unimaginable cosmic distances to reach our eyes is far more than just a faint twinkle; it ...
Which group of stars has the lowest temperature?
The hue radiating from a star provides a surprisingly accurate initial gauge of its surface temperature, allowing astron...
Do blue stars have a shorter lifespan?
The color of a star offers immediate clues about its fundamental nature, particularly its surface temperature and, conse...
What stars have the shortest lifespan?
The question of which stars lead the briefest existence in the cosmos immediately points us toward the giants, the behem...
How long does a blue star live?
The stars we observe in the night sky present a common visual, but beneath that shared backdrop lies a vast diversity of...