A WISE picture

Well, at least a picture taken by the WISE satellite. Go here to see the very pretty picture. Enjoy!

Ancient star formation

Go here to read how galaxies in some of the earliest known galaxy clusters in the universe are producing stars at a much higher rate than now. Interesting...

Cosmic Waves

When massive stars forms, they generate powerful winds which stream through their surroundings. Just like winds on Earth generate waves as they flow over water, these stellar waves apparently form waves in the surrounding gas which were recently observed. You can read more about it here, watch a video showing it here, and in its full scientific glory here.

Awwww... So Cute....

Baby stars. Discovered in a survey of the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Clouds, as you can read here and here. Enjoy!

The Most Massive Star

An important question in star formation is how massive can a star be? This is a very
tricky question, depending strongly on how the infalling material which forms the star interacts with the light emitted by it. Too much light (radiation pressure), it prevents from the material from falling onto the star. How the light interacts with the material depends on many factors: the chemical composition of the infalling material, the (unknown, honest) atomic properties of these atoms, etc. It was thought that the most massive star that could form today was 200 Solar Masses, but astronomers recently found something even more massive. Go here to read more about it.

The birth of the most massive stars

The current picture of star formation looks like this: small sections of a giant molecular cloud collapse under their own gravitational attraction (or something like that), and the collapsing gas and dust forms a star. This stops once either there is no more gas and dust or the light output of the star (luminosity) is sufficiently strong to blow away the surrounding gas and dust. Massive stars are so luminous that they stop this process before enough material can collapse to form them, a problem for models. As a result, people thought that maybe massive stars from from the merger of lower mass stars. Not so, say recent observations of a massive star forming that has a dusty disk around it and is expelling material - just as observed around single low mass stars as they form as you can read here or here or here or here or in its full detail here (subscription required. Sorry.)

So how do they form, that is still a mystery. But form directly they appear to do.

Puff, the Magic Dragon

Lived out in space
And frolicked in the molecular cloud called M17 SWex

Confused? See the pretty picture here and read more about the science here and here. Enjoy!

The Birth of a Star

Go here to read how lab experiments on Earth are providing important clues, and listen to an interview with Dr. Savin on this very program here. Enjoy!

Double, double toil and trouble;

Stars burn and gas bubbles

Go here to figure out what I'm trying to talk about, and my apologies to William Shakespeare

The Birth of Binary Stars

A majority of stars in the Milky Way are not isolated like our Sun but are actually orbiting other stars. How did these binary stars form? There are lots of theories out there, but new images from Spitzer might have determine which is correct. Go here to read more. Enjoy!

A Hole in Space

Not really a "hole", but Herschel has recently detected a large region of almost no gas or dust created by the expanding outflow from a young star as it forms. Go here for more details. Interesting.

It's not just about the Cosmic Microwave Background

ESA's new satellite Planck will also help astronomer learn how star form, as evidenced here. I like general purpose Astronomy satellite.

More pretty pictures of stellar nurseries

Available here courtesy of the VISTA telescope in Chile.

Nearby High-mass star formation

While astronomers think we have a good understanding of how Sun-like stars form, how more massive stars remain a mystery for various reasons. Go here here and here to read how observations by the new Herschel spacecraft will help reveal what is going on.

The Young and the Restless

stars, that is. Not the soap opera. Even though 2/3 of the instruments on Spitzer no long work since it ran of cryogen to keep them cold, it is still making many important observations, including this one aimed at studying the behavior of young stars. Enjoy!

The Two-Faced Nebula

Really just a pretty picture of a star-forming region, but it really is a pretty picture. Go here to decide for yourself.

Want to touch the stars?

Now, you can. Well, not literally, but you can touch Hubble images of the stars. Go here for more details. I think this is pretty awesome...

Astronomy has reached its APEX?

Okay, this is admittedly an absolutely atrocious pun, but ESO is building a new telescope called APEX in the Atacama desert. Why? Well, the Atacama desert is the driest place on Earth not located in Antarctica, which means that light at wavelengths which are normally absorbed by water in the atmosphere can reach the ground. So? Warm dust, which is a good signpost for star formation and the existence of very massive stars, emit most of their light in this region. Go here for the first results. Enjoy!

Distant Star Formation

By using the magnification resulting from gravitational lensing caused by a massive galaxy cluster coincidentally sitting between us and distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102, astronomers were able to map out where stars are forming in this galaxy - which happens to be forming ~250 new stars every year! Go here for more details. Interesting.

Baby stars!

Aren't they so cute?

Go here to see the pretty pictures and read about the science.