As material collapses onto a protostar, these young stars often form stellar jets that point outward along their axis of rotation. Made up of plasma, these jets shoot into the Keep reading
Tag: astronomy
Beneath a River of Red
A glowing arch of red, pink, and white anchors this stunning composite astrophotograph. This is a STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) caused by a river of fast-moving ions high Keep reading
A Dandelion-Like Supernova Remnant
In 1181 CE, astronomers in China and Japan recorded a new, short-lived star in the constellation Cassiopeia. After burning for nearly six months, this historic supernova disappeared from the naked Keep reading
Hello, STEVE
A purple glow arcs across the night sky. Just another aurora, or is it? First described in 2018, this is a STEVE — Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. (Yes, the Keep reading
A Comet’s Two Tails
The bright tail of a comet doesn’t actually stream out behind it. Instead, the tail points away from the sun, showing off all the ice, dust, and gas blown off Keep reading
Star-Birthing Shock Waves
Although the space between stars is empty by terrestrial standards, it’s not devoid of matter. There’s a scattering of cold gas and dust, pocked by areas known as prestellar cores Keep reading
Rocky Exoplanet With an Atmosphere
In the past few decades, the number of exoplanets we’ve found has ballooned to over 5,000, but most of these worlds are gas giants closer to Jupiter than our rocky Keep reading
Black Hole Signature
240 million years ago, pressure waves emanated from a black hole inside the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. Much later, NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory intercepted those waves. Scientists raised the frequency of Keep reading
Star YY Hya
A team of professional and amateur astronomers discovered and then imaged this previously undiscovered galactic nebula. At the heart of the stellar remnant is a binary star pair. Shock waves Keep reading
A Starry Nursery
This mountain of interstellar gas and dust lies in the picturesque Eagle Nebula. Though it appears solid in this near-infrared image from JWST, the density of the structure is actually Keep reading