For decades, astronomers have searched the skies for a missing population of doomed stars — the massive red supergiants that theory predicts should end their lives in powerful stellar explosions, but somehow rarely seem to. Now, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the mystery may finally be clearing up, quite literally. In a new study, a team of …
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Heads up stargazers! The moon will shine close to the bright star Antares at sunset on Sept. 27, while some lucky viewers — and plenty of penguins — will witness the lunar disk pass directly in front of the red supergiant, hiding it from view. Look 15 degrees above the southwestern horizon at sunset on Sept. 27 to find the …
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The half-lit moon will appear to skip past the red star Antares in the constellation Scorpius on the nights surrounding its first quarter phase on Aug. 30-31 this week. On Aug. 30, skywatchers can spot the nearly half-lit moon hanging a little less than 20 degrees above the southwestern horizon at sunset. Antares will shine as a bright red point …
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A red supergiant star has expelled the largest cloud of gas and dust ever seen in the process of being blown off one of these stellar behemoths. The vast size and intricacy of the cloud suggests that there could be a hidden group of stars that are contributing to the growth of the cloud. In a false-color image taken by …
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