Stars are enormous celestial bodies hot enough to register millions of degrees. They're fascinating scientific phenomena, but is it actually possible for scientists to create them? See more »

A dying star can explode with the force of a few octillion nuclear bombs and create any element in the universe. But why do stars go supernova? See more »

Long, long ago, our sun began its life as a mere twinkle in the universe's eye. How did it become the ruler of our solar system? See more »

Galaxies got their start nearly 14 billion years ago, with one unimaginably hot, dense and tiny pinpoint. How did we arrive at the universe's sprawling state of galactic affairs today? See more »

When you look up at night and see thousands of stars, have you ever wondered what you are looking at? Learn what stars are and how they live and die! See more »

A look at the night sky at any time of year will reveal a faint band of light stretching across the sky -- our solar system's home, the Milky Way. How much do we really know about it? See more »

When a huge star dies, it goes out with a bang -- literally. This gigantic explosion, known as a supernova, is so powerful it can outshine an entire galaxy, and sometimes create a massive black hole. What causes these stars to detonate rather than fizzle? See more »

It's your home, and a colossally sized one at that. How much do you know about your galactic digs and their residence amid the yawning universe? See more »

It wasn't so long ago that astronomers thought the universe contained normal matter, or baryonic matter, the base unit of which is the atom. But when it comes to the cosmos, there's always more than meets the eye. What else is hanging out in space? See more »

It turns out that measuring the distance to a star is an interesting problem! Astronomers have come up with two different techniques to estimate how far away any given star is. See more »