Besides being a point of light, a star is a luminous, spherical mass of plasma, enough to hold itself together under its own gravity. On its own, though, gravitational rounding isn't enough. What ...

Scientists are using modern technology to peer heavenward. This is an Inside Science story. Since ancient times, people gazing up at the night sky have seen animals, gods and goddesses, and other ...

Most events in the universe are not fully understood, including the relatively simple process of star formation. Stars form in dense clouds of cold gas and dust. When these clouds reach a threshold ...

Astronomers have captured the clearest picture yet of how massive stars are born, revealing a dramatic interplay between gravity and magnetic fields in some of our galaxy's most dynamic star forming ...

Stars form in massive clouds of gas called molecular clouds. As they form, they accrete gas from these clouds, and as the ...

Molecular clouds are composed of gas and dust and serve a vital purpose in star formation. Eos, a crescent-shaped gas cloud, is located about 300 light years away from Earth and is the size of 40 ...

Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope discovered three unusual astronomical objects in early 2025, which may ...

An image of the Milky Way captured by the MeerKAT radio telescope array puts the James Webb Space Telescope’s image of the Sagittarius C region in context. The MeerKAT image spans 1,000 light-years, ...

For decades, astronomers have wondered what the very first stars in the universe were like. These stars formed new chemical elements, which enriched the universe and allowed the next generations of ...

A mysterious region near the center of the Milky Way has captured the attention of astronomers. Known as Sagittarius C, this strange place holds thousands of newborn stars, huge clouds of gas, and ...

Chemistry in the first 50 million to 100 million years after the Big Bang may have been more active than we expected. This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication ...