Stars form in massive clouds of gas called molecular clouds. As they form, they accrete gas from these clouds, and as the ...

The magnetic field orientations of BYF 73, as derived from SOFIA data, are overlain on a composite image of the region taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope and Anglo-Australian Telescope. The circled ...

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to peer inside the heart of spiral galaxies, where young stars carve out glowing paths. The space observatory, named after a North Carolina native, ...

From your place inside the Milky Way, you are living within a galaxy that keeps a detailed chemical diary. Every star holds ...

Early stages of star formation are now better understood, following an extensive millimeter-wave study of protostars, which are young stellar objects still deeply embedded in their parent molecular ...

The findings could help solve the mystery of how the first stars formed. The roughly four-billion-year-old system consists of a black hole and two orbiting stars—a configuration that's never been seen ...

All galaxies (including our own) are thought to exist inside a giant cosmological structure called a dark matter halo - a cloud-like phenomenon made up of invisible matter that forms a scaffold to the ...

Theorists have long wondered how massive stars–up to 120 times the mass of the Sun–can form without blowing away the clouds of gas and dust that feed their growth. But the problem turns out to be less ...

“Our latest discovery helps solve a 20-year cosmic mystery,” co-lead author Daniel Whalen from the University of Portsmouth's ...

Is it a flying elephant? A gingerbread man? When I was little, I used to search the clouds for amusing shapes as they drifted across the sky and imagine stories about their patterns. Now I'm a ...

This Collection features original research on the mechanisms driving star formation, the lifecycle of various stellar types, and the complex interactions between stars and their environments. The ...