Most stars in the universe do not travel through space alone. Binary and multiple star systems consist of two or more stars bound together by gravity, orbiting a shared center of mass in complex and often beautiful gravitational dances. In fact, astronomers estimate that at…
Continue reading... Variable stars are stars whose brightness changes over time. Some brighten and fade in steady, predictable cycles, while others fluctuate irregularly due to violent activity or interactions with companion stars. These changing stars reveal that the night sky is far more dynamic than it first…
Continue reading... White dwarfs and neutron stars are the compact remnants left behind after stars exhaust their nuclear fuel. Though small in size, these stellar corpses are among the densest and most extreme objects in the universe, packing enormous amounts of mass into incredibly tiny volumes. Stars…
Continue reading... Red giants and supergiants are stars nearing the end of their lives — swollen, unstable, and vastly larger than they once were. After spending most of their existence steadily fusing hydrogen on the main sequence, these stars eventually exhaust the fuel in their cores and…
Continue reading... Main sequence stars are stars that are actively converting hydrogen into helium through nuclear fusion in their cores. This stage represents the longest and most stable phase of a star’s life. Nearly all stars visible in the night sky — including our Sun — are…
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