Stars: Cosmic Beacons
 The stars that 'twinkle, twinkle' in the night sky are just a few of the countless trillions of glowing orbs that illuminate the universe. Stars come in many sizes, colors, and ages. Some live short, fast, brilliant lives, while others putter along as faint cosmic embers. Some will blast themselves to bits, some will just fade away, and some will collapse to form black holes. All of them will continue to inspire poets and scientists alike. More »
The Main Sequence
Stars come in a variety of sizes and colors, but they all shine because they are hot. More »
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Measuring the Stars
Ongoing research by Texas astronomers and others helps us understand the age, composition, and weight of stars. More »
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Great Dates
1666
Isaac Newton discovers that sunlight is a 'spectrum' of colors
1854
Hermann von Helmholtz suggests that the Sun may be powered by gravitational
contraction
1908
George Ellery Hale discovers the Sun's magnetic field
1911-13
Ejnar Hertzsprung, Henry Norris Russell discover a relationship
between a star's temperature and its brightness
1920
Arthur Eddington proposes that nuclear reactions power the stars
1926
Eddington discovers a relationship between a star's mass and its
brightness
1938
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar calculates the maximum mass of a white
dwarf; more-massive stars will form denser objects
See Also...
Table of brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere.
FAQs about stars and nebulae.
Featured images about stars and nebulae.
Keywords about stars and nebulae.
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Colorful Dwarfs
Most of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are small, faint cosmic embers known as red dwarfs. More »
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Exploding Stars
Some types of stars expire with titanic explosions, called supernovae. More »
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Black Holes
A black hole is invisible, but astronomers can detect it because its enormous gravity grabs nearby matter. More »
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Stellar Superlatives
The biggest, brightest, fastest, most Sun-like stars yet discovered. More »
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