Between November 2019 and March 2020 Betelgeuse, the red supergiant star in the constellation Orion’s left shoulder, experienced what’s being called the Great Dimming. Usually, the star is one of Keep reading
Tag: stellar evolution
Eye of the Stellar Storm
AG Carinae is a bright, unstable luminous blue variable star. This rare type of star lives fast and dies young (by stellar standards) over only a few million years. During Keep reading
Chaos in the Lagoon Nebula
Even on the scale of light-years, fluid dynamics plays a role in our universe. This photograph shows the Lagoon Nebula, where stars, gas, and dust are battling for supremacy. Jets Keep reading
Shock Waves Drive Nova Brightening
New observations of nova V906 Carinae have provided some of the first direct evidence that the observed brightening of these stellar objects is driven by shock waves. Novae form when Keep reading
Bringing the Stars Home
One of my favorite aspects of fluid dynamics is the way that the same patterns and phenomena appear over and over again – sometimes in the most unexpected places. That’s Keep reading
Turbulence and Star Formation
Space, as I’ve discussed previously, is surprisingly full of matter, especially clouds of dust. And yet the rate of star formation we observe is bizarrely low; the Milky Way, for Keep reading
Stellar Bow Shock
This Hubble image shows a young star in the Orion Nebula and the curved bow shock arcing around it. Despite its age, the star LL Orionis is energetic, producing a Keep reading
The Bubble Nebula
This spectacular Hubble image shows the Bubble Nebula. The source of this nebula is the star seen toward the upper left side of the bubble. This massive, super-hot star has Keep reading
The Veil Nebula
There is no grander scale for the observation of fluid dynamics than that of the astronomical. Here Hubble astronomers discuss the formation of the Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant formed Keep reading
Supersonic Stellar Jets
Astronomers studying stellar jets–massive outflows of gases and particles pouring from the poles of newborn stars–are finding reasons to turn to fluid dynamicists to understand the timelapse videos they’ve stitched Keep reading