News Release Archive: Star

2009

• 9/9/2009 STScI-2009-25 1. Hubble Opens New Eyes on the Universe NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, ready to uncover new worlds, peer ever deeper into space, and even map the invisible backbone of the universe. (More)
• 6/25/2009 STScI-2009-22 2. STScI Joins the Search for Other Earths in Space The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., is partnering on a historic search for Earth-size planets around other stars. (More)
• 4/1/2009 STScI-2009-15 3. Hubble Finds Hidden Exoplanet in Archival Data In 19 years of observations, the Hubble Space Telescope has amassed a huge archive of data. That archive may contain the telltale glow of undiscovered extrasolar planets... (More)
• 3/22/2009 STScI-2009-13 4. Hubble Uncovers an Unusual Stellar Progenitor to a Supernova Astronomers have detailed theories about what type of stars self-destruct in titanic supernova explosions. However, it would be useful to test stellar... (More)
• 1/7/2009 STScI-2009-03 5. Hubble Finds Stars That 'Go Ballistic' Resembling comets streaking across the sky, these four speedy stars are plowing through regions of dense interstellar gas and creating brilliant arrowhead structures and trailing... (More)
• 1/6/2009 STScI-2009-04 6. Star Light, Star Bright, Its Explanation is Out of Sight This pair of NASA Hubble Space Telescope pictures shows the appearance of a mysterious burst of light that was detected on February 21, 2006, brightened... (More)
• 1/5/2009 STScI-2009-01 7. Brown Dwarfs Don't Hang Out With Stars Brown dwarfs, objects that are less massive than stars but larger than planets, just got more elusive, based on studies of nearby multiple-star systems... (More)

2008

• 12/9/2008 STScI-2008-41 8. Hubble Finds Carbon Dioxide on an Extrasolar Planet NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This is an important step along the trail of finding... (More)
• 11/13/2008 STScI-2008-39 9. Hubble Directly Observes Planet Orbiting Fomalhaut Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet orbiting another star. The images show the planet, named Fomalhaut... (More)
• 7/1/2008 STScI-2008-22 10. Hubble Sees Stars and a Stripe in Celestial Fireworks A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually... (More)
• 3/19/2008 STScI-2008-11 11. Hubble Finds First Organic Molecule on an Exoplanet NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough... (More)
• 1/10/2008 STScI-2008-01 12. Circumstellar Dust Takes Flight in 'The Moth' What superficially resembles a giant moth floating in space is giving astronomers new insight into the formation and evolution of planetary systems. This is not your typical... (More)

2007

• 12/11/2007 STScI-2007-44 13. Hubble Finds that Extrasolar Planet Has a Hazy Sunset A team of astronomers, led by Frederic Pont from the Geneva University Observatory in Switzerland, has detected for the first time strong evidence... (More)
• 12/4/2007 STScI-2007-42 14. How White Dwarfs Get Their 'Kicks' NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is providing strong evidence that white dwarfs, the burned-out relics of stars, are given a "kick" when they form. The sharp vision of Hubble's Advanced... (More)
• 7/19/2007 STScI-2007-28 15. Astronomers Find Highly Elliptical Disk Around Young Star Dust and debris parade in an extremely misshapen ring around the young star, HD 15115. The disk, seen edge-on with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope... (More)
• 2/22/2007 STScI-2007-10 16. NASA's Hubble Telescope Celebrates SN 1987A's 20th Anniversary Twenty years ago, astronomers witnessed one of the brightest stellar explosions in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova... (More)
• 1/31/2007 STScI-2007-07 17. Hubble Probes Layer-cake Structure of Alien World's Atmosphere The powerful vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to study for the first time the layer-cake structure of the atmosphere of a planet orbiting... (More)
• 1/8/2007 STScI-2007-03 18. Astronomers Map a Hypergiant Star's Massive Outbursts Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory, Kameula, Hawaii, astronomers have learned that the gaseous outflow from one of the brightest super-sized... (More)
• 1/7/2007 STScI-2007-02 19. Hubble Observations Provide Insight into Planet Birth Hubble observed a "blizzard" of particles in a disk around a young star revealing the process by which planets grow from tiny dust grains. The particles... (More)

2006

• 12/11/2006 STScI-2006-54 20. Heavyweight Stars Light Up Nebula NGC 6357 The small open star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357 in Scorpius, about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. Some of the stars in this cluster... (More)
• 11/16/2006 STScI-2006-52 21. Hubble Finds Evidence for Dark Energy in the Young Universe Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that dark energy is not a new constituent of space, but rather has been present... (More)
• 10/26/2006 STScI-2006-50 22. Hubble's Latest Views of Light Echo from Star V838 Monocerotis These are the most recent NASA Hubble Space Telescope views of an unusual phenomenon in space called a light echo. Light from a star that erupted... (More)
• 10/9/2006 STScI-2006-32 23. Hubble Observations Confirm that Planets Form from Disks Around Stars NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, in collaboration with ground-based observations, has provided definitive evidence for the existence of the nearest extrasolar... (More)
• 10/4/2006 STScI-2006-34 24. Hubble Finds Extrasolar Planets Far Across Galaxy NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 16 extrasolar planet candidates orbiting a variety of distant stars in the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. (More)
• 9/7/2006 STScI-2006-31 25. Planet Or Failed Star? NASA's Hubble Telescope Photographs One of Smallest Stellar Companions Ever Seen Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have photographed one of the smallest objects... (More)
• 8/17/2006 STScI-2006-37 26. Hubble Sees Faintest Stars in a Globular Cluster NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered what astronomers are reporting as the dimmest stars ever seen in any globular star cluster. Globular clusters are spherical... (More)
• 8/8/2006 STScI-2006-38 27. Hubble Identifies Stellar Companion to Distant Planet NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has for the first time identified the parent star of a distant planet (system name OGLE-2003-BLG-235L/MOA-2003-BLG-53L) discovered... (More)
• 6/27/2006 STScI-2006-25 28. Hubble Reveals Two Dust Disks Around Nearby Star Beta Pictoris Detailed images of the nearby star Beta Pictoris, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, confirm the existence of not one but two dust disks encircling... (More)
• 5/18/2006 STScI-2006-22 29. Astronomers Use Innovative Technique to Find Extrasolar Planet An international team of professional and amateur astronomers, using simple off-the-shelf equipment to trawl the skies for planets outside our solar system... (More)
• 3/15/2006 STScI-2006-11 30. Astronomers Measure Precise Mass of a Binary Brown Dwarf This is an artist's concept of a pair of eclipsing brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are mysterious celestial objects that fall somewhere between the smallest... (More)
• 2/7/2006 STScI-2006-07 31. Hubble Snaps Images of a Pinwheel-Shaped Galaxy This dramatic spiral galaxy is one of the latest viewed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Stunning details of the face-on spiral galaxy, cataloged as NGC 1309, are captured... (More)
• 1/25/2006 STScI-2006-06 32. Astronomers Find Smallest Extrasolar Planet Yet Around Normal Star Using an armada of telescopes, an international team of astronomers has found the smallest planet ever detected around a normal star outside our solar system. (More)
• 1/19/2006 STScI-2006-05 33. Dusty Planetary Disks Around Two Nearby Stars Resemble Our Kuiper Belt These two bright debris disks of ice and dust appear to be the equivalent of our own solar system's Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy rocks outside... (More)
• 1/9/2006 STScI-2006-03 34. Mystery Solved: High-Energy Fireworks Linked to Massive Star Cluster Call it the Bermuda Triangle of our Milky Way Galaxy: a tiny patch of sky that has been known for years to be the source of the mysterious... (More)
• 1/9/2006 STScI-2006-02 35. There's More to the North Star Than Meets the Eye By stretching the capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to the limit, astronomers have photographed the close companion of Polaris... (More)

2005

• 12/13/2005 STScI-2005-36 36. Astronomers Use Hubble to 'Weigh' Dog Star's Companion For astronomers, it's always been a source of frustration that the nearest white-dwarf star is buried in the glow of the brightest star in the nighttime sky. (More)
• 12/1/2005 STScI-2005-37 37. A Giant Hubble Mosaic of the Crab Nebula The Crab Nebula is a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent... (More)
• 11/30/2005 STScI-2005-31 38. Planet-Sized Brown Dwarf May Yield Smallest Known Solar System Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and other ground-based observatories have discovered a failed star, less than one-hundredth... (More)
• 10/4/2005 STScI-2005-30 39. NASA Space Observatories Glimpse Faint Afterglow of Nearby Stellar Explosion Intricate wisps of glowing gas float amid a myriad of stars in this image of the supernova remnant, N132D. The ejected material shows that roughly... (More)
• 7/28/2005 STScI-2005-21 40. Hubble Pinpoints Doomed Star that Explodes as Supernova Amidst the glitter of billions of stars in the majestic spiral galaxy called the Whirlpool (M51), a massive star abruptly ends its life in a brilliant flash of light. (More)
• 6/22/2005 STScI-2005-10 41. Elusive Planet Reshapes a Ring Around Neighboring Star The top view, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is the most detailed visible-light image ever taken of a narrow, dusty ring around the nearby star Fomalhaut... (More)
• 2/3/2005 STScI-2005-02 42. Light Continues to Echo Three Years After Stellar Outburst The Hubble Space Telescope's latest image of the star V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. (More)
• 1/10/2005 STScI-2005-03 43. Hubble's Infrared Eyes Home in on Suspected Extrasolar Planet The Hubble Space Telescope's near-infrared vision is hot on the trail of a possible planetary companion to a relatively bright young brown dwarf located... (More)

2004

• 12/9/2004 STScI-2004-33 44. Spitzer and Hubble Capture Evolving Planetary Systems Two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, have provided astronomers an unprecedented look at dusty planetary... (More)
• 10/27/2004 STScI-2004-34 45. Stellar Survivor from 1572 A.D. Explosion Supports Supernova Theory An international team of astronomers is announcing today that they have identified the probable surviving companion star to a titanic supernova explosion witnessed... (More)
• 10/6/2004 STScI-2004-29 46. NASA's Great Observatories May Unravel 400-Year Old Supernova Mystery Four hundred years ago, sky watchers, including the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler, were startled by the sudden appearance of a "new star" in the western... (More)
• 9/2/2004 STScI-2004-23 47. A Bright Supernova in the Nearby Galaxy NGC 2403 The explosion of a massive star blazes with the light of 200 million Suns in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. The arrow at top right points to the stellar... (More)
• 7/15/2004 STScI-2004-24 48. Astronomers Measure Mass of a Single Star — First Since the Sun Astronomers have directly measured the mass of a single star — the first time such a feat has been accomplished for any solitary... (More)
• 6/15/2004 STScI-2004-51 49. Ultra-cool Diminutive Star Weighs In The power of the some of the world's biggest telescopes has been brought to bear to directly measure the mass, for the first time, of one of the smallest stars ever seen in the universe. (More)
• 4/8/2004 STScI-2004-13 50. Hubble Sees Stars as Numerous as Grains of Sand in Nearby Galaxy What appear as individual grains of sand on a beach in the image obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are actually myriads... (More)