A neutron star's almost incomprehensible density causes protons and electrons to combine into neutrons—the process that gives such stars their name. The composition of their cores is unknown ...

While solitary black holes should be common, they are hard to find. The one in Sagittarius revealed itself when it passed in front of a dim background star, magnifying the star’s light and slowly ...

Beyond a certain region, not even light can escape the powerful tug of a black hole's gravity. And anything that ventures too close—be it star, planet, or spacecraft—will be stretched and ...

Astronomers have witnessed the titanic collision between two neutron stars that resulted in the birth of the smallest black ...

More massive stars than the Sun have a very different life cycle and follow the right hand path in the diagram above: \(\begin{equation} \begin{aligned} Nebula \rightarrow protostar \rightarrow ...