Why did they form at that time? Astronomers know from observing distant exploding stars that the size of the universe has ...

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 ...

The night sky may look calm, but behind the glowing points of light lies a violent and complex process of creation. Stars, ...

Our sun may be responsible for life on Earth, but stars across the galaxy are also responsible for creating a plethora of elements on the period table. These are some of the building blocks of life as ...

Joshua Rapp Learn is an award-winning D.C.-based science journalist who frequently writes for Discover Magazine, covering topics about archaeology, wildlife, paleontology, space and other topics. View ...

Richard Feynman, a famous theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize, said that if he could pass on only one piece of scientific information to future generations, it would be that all things are ...

Astrophysicists have discovered how ‘Galactic snake’, a serpentine-shaped molecular cloud, 9,523 light years away from Earth, is spawning massive stars 1. These stars, eight times heavier than the Sun ...

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 ...

The very first generation of stars, called Population III stars, are mostly expected to be too distant to see directly – but ...