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: stellar evolution
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
Simeis 147
Sometimes known as the Spaghetti Nebula, Simeis 147 is the remnant of a supernova that occurred 40,000 years ago. The glowing filaments of this composite image show hydrogen and oxygen Keep reading
Stellar-Wind-Shaped Nebula
Stars about 100 times more massive than our sun live fast and die young. They burn through their hydrogen supply quickly, then start fusing heavier elements. As they do, their 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
Betelgeuse’s Flickering
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
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