Stellar evolution as a research area investigates the physical processes governing the formation, structural changes, and end states of stars across cosmic time, using stellar structure theory, nuclear astrophysics, hydrodynamics, and radiative transfer. It encompasses modeling of protostellar collapse, main-sequence hydrogen burning, post–main-sequence shell burning, and advanced nucleosynthesis up to core collapse or thermonuclear disruption, as well as mass loss, rotation, magnetic fields, and binary interactions. The field integrates observations (e.g., HR diagrams, asteroseismology, stellar populations) with numerical simulations to constrain stellar lifetimes, remnant formation (white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes), and the chemical and energetic feedback of stars into galaxies.
The universe is a slow-changing place. While it's mostly true that the heavens and the deep-sky objects in it will look largely the same across an average human lifetime, there are dramatic examples that defy this trend.
Astronomy
Sep 21, 2025
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An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary system. The newfound binary, designated MML 48, consists of two young low-mass stars. The finding will be published in ...
The sun will someday die. This will happen when it runs out of hydrogen fuel in its core and can no longer produce energy through nuclear fusion as it does now. The death of the sun is often thought of as the end of the solar ...
Astrobiology
Aug 28, 2025
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Stars have layers like onions, according to theory. The layers are made of different elements, progressing from light to heavy the deeper the layers are. While the theory is strong, observing the inner layers of a star has ...
Astronomy
Aug 27, 2025
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For the first time, scientists have directly tracked the slow transformation of a dying star over more than a century—revealing it is heating up faster than any other typical star ever observed.
Astronomy
Aug 20, 2025
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Since the discovery of planetary nebulae in the late 1700s, astronomers have learned that these expanding shells of glowing gas expelled by low-intermediate mass stars late in their lives can come in all shapes and sizes. ...
Astronomy
Jul 30, 2025
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The day before my thesis examination, my friend and radio astronomer Joe Callingham showed me an image we'd been awaiting for five long years—an infrared photo of two dying stars we'd requested from the Very Large Telescope ...
Astronomy
Jul 24, 2025
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Orion Nebula, Pleiades and Hyades: The latest research results indicate that these famous star clusters represent the different phases of life of one and the same star system. A team of astrophysicists at the Institute for ...
Astronomy
Jul 18, 2025
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Figuring out the ages of stars is fundamental to understanding many areas of astronomy—yet, it remains a challenge since stellar ages can't be ascertained through observation alone. So, astronomers at the University of Toronto ...
Astronomy
Jul 2, 2025
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When people think of black holes, they imagine something dramatic: a star exploding in space, collapsing in on itself, and forming a cosmic monster that eats everything around it. But what if black holes didn't always begin ...
