Black holes are among the most intriguing cosmic bodies, but we know little about their origins. The Pop III.1 model explains ...

Chemistry in the first 50 million to 100 million years after the Big Bang may have been more active than we expected.

Astronomers studying how elements heavier than iron were produced in the early Milky Way have identified a distinct series of epochs of galaxy-wide chemical formation. This evolutionary timeline, ...

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 ...

Astronomers have witnessed a rare “extremely stripped supernova” that exposed the inner silicon layers of a dying star, confirming theories of stellar fusion and offering new insight into how ...

At just 25, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin applied quantum physics to a treasure trove of astronomical observations to show that stars are mostly hydrogen and helium.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin discovered the composition of stars at the age of 25: hydrogen, helium, and traces of nearly all other elements. Her 1925 discovery was one of the earliest successful attempts ...

Stellar size and class diversification originates from the initial mass of the molecular cloud from which stars form. The elemental composition of the molecular cloud, specifically the abundance of ...

A group of galaxies in our cosmic backyard has given astronomers clues about how stars form. A thorough survey using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed around 14 million stars in 69 ...