Stellar family portrait in X-rays

In some ways, star clusters are like giant families with thousands of stellar siblings. These stars come from the same origins—a common cloud of gas and dust—and are bound to one another by gravity. Astronomers think ...

Image: Rotation of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Last week the much-awaited second slew of data from ESA's Gaia mission was released, providing information on a phenomenal 1.7 billion stars – the richest star catalogue to date.

Stars are born in loose groupings

Based on previously published data from the Gaia Mission, researchers at Heidelberg University have derived the conditions under which stars form. The Gaia satellite is measuring the three-dimensional positions and motions ...

Dense stellar clusters may foster black hole megamergers

When LIGO's twin detectors first picked up faint wobbles in their respective, identical mirrors, the signal didn't just provide first direct detection of gravitational waves—it also confirmed the existence of stellar binary ...

Exotic binary stars

Cataclysmic variable stars (CVs) are white dwarf stars that are accreting from an orbiting, low mass binary companion star. The accretion is facilitated by the proximity of the stars; typical orbital periods range from about ...

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