Related topics: stars

Retired star found with planets and debris disc

(Phys.org) —ESA's Herschel space observatory has provided the first images of a dust belt – produced by colliding comets or asteroids – orbiting a subgiant star known to host a planetary system. The team of scientists ...

Can Earth-sized planets survive their star's expansion?

Two Earth-sized planets have been discovered circling a dying star that has passed the red giant stage. Because of their close orbits, the planets must have been engulfed by their star while it swelled up to many times its ...

A New Method of Estimating Stellar Distances

(PhysOrg.com) -- The star Chi Cygni is located about 550 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. It is a notable star because, unlike the sun which still burns hydrogen and is in its mature ...

Astronomers spot cosmic dust fountain

(PhysOrg.com) -- Space dust annoys astronomers just as much as the household variety when it interferes with their observations of distant stars. And yet space dust also poses one of the great mysteries of astronomy.

How did the Butterfly Nebula get its wings? It's complicated

Planetary nebulae form when red giant stars expel their outermost layers as they run out of helium fuel—becoming hot, dense white dwarf stars that are roughly the size of Earth. The material that was shed, enriched in carbon, ...

New Webb image reveals dusty disk like never seen before

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has imaged the inner workings of a dusty disk surrounding a nearby red dwarf star. These observations represent the first time the previously known disk has been imaged at these infrared ...

page 3 from 13