Stars

Astronomers discover parallel disks and jets bursting from a pair of young stars

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At left, a mid-infrared image of the rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the focus is on the WL20 star system. At right, WL20 is enlarged to reveal an artist’s impression of this new discovery. Astronomers couldn’t believe their luck when observations at multiple radio and infrared wavelengths by ALMA and … Read more

Hubble Revisits 40-Year-Old Mystery of Strange Star’s Nova

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SciTechDaily

This artist’s concept shows the nova system HM Sagittae (HM Sge), where a white dwarf star is pulling material from its red giant companion. This forms a hot, blazing disk around the dwarf, which can unpredictably undergo a spontaneous thermonuclear explosion as the hydrogen inflow from the red giant thickens and reaches a tipping point. … Read more