(Phys.org)—The North Star (Polaris) has played an important role in human history, yet knowledge of its fundamental parameters is unsatisfactory. That problem is attributable in large part to uncertainties tied to the star's ...
Astronomy
Nov 30, 2012
0
0
Pulsars are among the most extreme stars in the universe: dense balls of matter which are heavier than the Sun, yet only a few tens of kilometers in diameter. They rotate rapidly (up to several hundred revolutions per second) ...
Astronomy
Oct 8, 2012
37
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- By discovering the first double star where a pulsating Cepheid variable and another star pass in front of one another, an international team of astronomers has solved a decades-old mystery. The rare alignment ...
Astronomy
Nov 24, 2010
5
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Modern astronomy sometimes makes discoveries by looking in new places, the distant universe for example, using telescopes and instruments that extend the previous limits of detection.
Astronomy
Feb 26, 2010
3
0
(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 ...
Astronomy
Dec 21, 2009
2
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- About 550 light-years from Earth, a star like our Sun is writhing in its death throes. Chi Cygni has swollen in size to become a red giant star so large that it would swallow every planet out to Mars in our ...
Astronomy
Dec 15, 2009
5
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- An extensive study made with ESO's Very Large Telescope deepens a long-standing mystery in the study of stars similar to the Sun. Unusual year-long variations in the brightness of about one third of all Sun-like ...
Astronomy
Dec 7, 2009
7
0
