New data help astronomers explore the hidden Milky Way

(Phys.org) —Today, astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, or SDSS-III – including University of Virginia astronomers – released a new online public data set featuring 60,000 stars that are helping to tell ...

Candidate most massive binary star identified

Astronomers have observed a binary star that potentially weighed 300 to 400 solar masses at birth. The present day total mass of the two stars is between 200 and 300 times that of the Sun, depending on its evolutionary stage, ...

EUNIS mission: Six minutes in the life of the Sun

(Phys.org)—In December, a NASA mission to study the sun will make its third launch into space for a six-minute flight to gather information about the way material roils through the sun's atmosphere, sometimes causing eruptions ...

By measuring lithium, researchers study star structure

During its nuclear fusion processes, a burning star does not make the element lithium. Rather, over time, stars consume their lithium supply that was originally created during the Big Bang that gave birth to our universe.

50 new exoplanets discovered by HARPS

Astronomers using ESO's world-leading exoplanet hunter HARPS have today announced a rich haul of more than 50 new exoplanets, including 16 super-Earths, one of which orbits at the edge of the habitable zone of its star. By ...

Brown dwarf pair mystifies astronomers

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two brown dwarf-sized objects orbiting a giant old star show that planets may assemble around stars more quickly and efficiently than anyone thought possible, according to an international team of astronomers.

Brightness variations of sun-like stars: The mystery deepens

(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 ...

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