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Not Quite a Star, Not Quite a Planet, but Hotter Than the Sun

Scientists discover brown dwarf that's up to 90 times the size of Jupiter, nearly 14K degrees

(Newser) - Israeli researchers have stumbled on a celestial object that "is seriously confronting our notions of what's possible in the universe." That's per Science Alert , which reports on the discovery of a sweltering brown dwarf —an object that falls somewhere between planet and star, but which...

One of Orion's Stars Went Oddly Dim. Now We Know Why

Nope, Betelgeuse is not about to go supernova

(Newser) - A well-known star in the constellation of Orion—the one that makes up Orion's right shoulder—has been the subject of an 18-month mystery that has now been solved. Betelgeuse rapidly dimmed in late 2019 and early 2020 to a degree that had never been recorded before and one...

Our Galaxy Might See a 'Spectacular Death'

The 'supergiant' star Betelgeuse is getting dimmer

(Newser) - Keep your telescope handy: Betelgeuse might be about to blow. Astronomers say the "supergiant" star, which sits 650 light-years away, is at its dimmest in about a century—meaning we could witness our galaxy's first supernova in the telescopic era, Science Alert reports. "It kept getting fainter,...

Snoop to Snoop During Star Ceremony: 'You a Bad Mother'

Rapper thanks himself, among others

(Newser) - Snoop Dogg got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Monday, and the final person the rapper thanked in his speech wasn't God, his wife, or his parents—it was himself. "Last but not least, I want to thank me for believing in me. I want to...

Unanimous Vote on Trump's Hollywood Star: It Must Go

But West Hollywood City Council resolution is nonbinding, and past stances suggest it will stay

(Newser) - It's unanimous, at least in the West Hollywood City Council: The group voted Monday night to get rid of President Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, reports the Wrap . The resolution urges the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the City of Los Angeles to remove the...

Trump's Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Is Now Rubble

It was basically destroyed, again, by a guy with a pickax

(Newser) - Vandalism has once again hit President Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This time, a man who had a pickax hidden in a guitar case almost completely destroyed the star, reducing it to mostly rubble, NBC Los Angeles reports. The suspect left the pickax at the star...

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a ... Giant Disco Ball in the Sky?

Rocket Lab says its 'Humanity Star' will shine in the sky for next 9 months

(Newser) - What's being described as a "giant disco ball" was launched into space last week from a New Zealand sheep and cattle farm, and astronomers are miffed, the Guardian reports. Rocket Lab, the space exploration startup responsible for hurling the "Humanity Star" skyward, says the 3-foot-wide carbon-fiber orb...

Scientists Just Found Smallest Possible Star

Thousands of times dimmer than our own sun

(Newser) - Introducing EBLM J0555-57Ab, which now has the distinction of being the smallest star ever discovered. In fact, scientists at the University of Cambridge say stars cannot possibly get much smaller and still function as stars, per a release at Phys.org . This one is 600 light-years away from Earth and...

Here's What's Left of Donald Trump's Hollywood Star

Vandal decimated Walk of Fame landmark with pickax, sledgehammer—and it's all on tape

(Newser) - He didn't want to destroy it; he said he wanted to pry it out and sell it. But either way, a guy in construction worker getup smashed Donald Trump's star to bits on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday morning—and now the LAPD is on the hunt,...

Trump Finally Gets His 'Border Wall'

Around his Hollywood star, that is

(Newser) - Donald Trump finally got his border wall Tuesday—just not where he expected. Los Angeles-based street artist Plastic Jesus erected a 6-inch-tall wall—complete with barbed wire and "keep out" signs—around Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, reports CNN . The display—later removed—also included...

This 15-Year-Old Intern Found Something 'Amazing'
This 15-Year-Old Intern
Found Something 'Amazing'
in case you missed it
Jun 14, 2015 11:59 AM CDT

This 15-Year-Old Intern Found Something 'Amazing'

It took 2 years to confirm that WASP-142b is indeed a planet

(Newser) - British high school student Tom Wagg already has a line on his resume most of us can only dream of. While interning at Keele University two years ago, the then-15-year-old found what looked to be a planet; telescopes in Chile were used to take a deeper look, and now astronomers...

Scientists Find 'Coldest Place in the Universe'

The Boomerang Nebula is minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit

(Newser) - Think winter is cold in your neck of the woods? It's nothing compared to the Boomerang Nebula (also known as the Bow Tie Nebula), where a dying star 5,000 light-years away has created the coldest known place in the universe, Smithsonian reports in a wintery look at the...

Astronomers Spot Oldest Star Yet

13.6B-year-old star is in our galaxy

(Newser) - At 13.6 billion years old, a star spotted by Australian astronomers is the oldest yet found, they say. It's about 6,000 light years away from our planet—which is fairly close, the Wall Street Journal reports, and it's in our Milky Way galaxy. How do the...

The North Star Is Changing
 The North Star Is Changing 
Jan 28, 2014 12:31 PM CST

The North Star Is Changing

Polaris getting brighter over the centuries

(Newser) - Polaris is famed for its consistency, but the North Star we see today is brighter than it was in the 1800s. In fact, if historical records are correct, the star has gotten about 2.5 times brighter over the course of the past two centuries, researcher Scott Engle tells Space....

NASA Spots Nearby 'Young' Black Hole

Could it be a gateway to another universe?

(Newser) - NASA has spotted what appears to be the galaxy's newest black hole—and it's relatively nearby. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has spotted the aftermath of a super nova that, from Earth's vantage point, is just 1,000 years old, the agency reports . (Of course, it's 26,...

Scientists Glimpse Universe's First Stars

The glow is almost as old as time itself

(Newser) - Star light, star bright, the first stars have actually been glimpsed—or at least their light has, reports Space.com . Astronomers in California studied massive black holes, called blazars, that give off huge amounts of light while swallowing up matter—and were able to separate out a glow from what...

NASA Finds Planet Circling Two Stars

Sadly, it's not Tatooine

(Newser) - NASA has found another decidedly nifty planet. Meet Kepler-16b, the first planet ever verified to have two suns—kind of like Tatooine from Star Wars, NASA noted in its announcement . There’s no way the Saturn-sized world is habitable—it’s at least half gas—but “the discovery confirms...

Zeta Ophiuchi: NASA Spots Runaway Star
 NASA Spots Runaway Star 
Jan 26, 2011 12:32 PM CST

NASA Spots Runaway Star

Supernova sent Zeta Ophiuchi bolting through space

(Newser) - NASA's latest find is a runaway star with about 20 times the mass of our sun, slamming through space at an eye-popping 54,000 miles per hour, reports Space.com. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) caught Zeta Ophiuchi in a spectacular infrared image that shows a massive star blanketed...

NASA Studying Strange, Star-Creating Blob

Hanny's Voorwerp creating 'lonely' stars 'in the middle of nowhere'

(Newser) - The Hubble Telescope has turned its gaze to a mysterious glowing green blob that’s creating stars where stars shouldn’t normally form. Dubbed Hanny’s Voorwerp, after the Dutch elementary school teacher who first discovered it in 2007, the blob is a swirling mass of hydrogen gas, caused by...

Bits of One Universe's First Stars Spotted

Remains of early star a 'Holy Grail' of astronomy

(Newser) - Astronomers believe they have spotted the remains of one of the universe's very first stars—a "missing link" between the Big Bang and today's universe. The gas cloud left behind when the star exploded more than 13 billion years ago was illuminated by light emitted from a quasar, the...

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