The recent data from the Gaia space observatory has allowed astronomers, for the first time, to create a large 3D atlas of widely separated binary stars–1.3 million of them, within roughly 3 000 light-years of Earth. The atlas, generated by Ph.D. astrophysics…
A new theory published this week in the AAS' The Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests that our Sun may once have had a binary companion of similar mass. If confirmed, the presence of an early stellar companion increases the likelihood that the Oort cloud was…
An unusual tear-drop shaped star that only pulsates on one side has been discovered by amateur astronomers, who saw the anomaly in data taken by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). It is reportedly the first of its kind, and scientists are…
According to a new analysis by a theoretical physicist from UC Berkley and a radio astronomer from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University, our sun, as well as every other sunlike star in the universe, had a twin when it was born. Astronomers…
In the middle of the 19th century, the massive binary system Eta Carinae underwent an eruption that ejected at least 10 times the sun's mass and made it the second-brightest star in the sky. Now, a team of astronomers has used extensive new observations to create th
Over 80% of all solar systems have multiple suns, so is it possible that we live in a binary solar system with two suns as well? Recent discoveries point to the existence of an old brown dwarf. Our solar system is surrounded by a vast collection of icy bodies called…
