Can a star turn into a planet?

Isn’t it amazing that astronomy – humanity’s oldest science – continues to generate such a delightful amount of new knowledge? Seeing as we’ve been studying the motion of the stars for a good long whi

To make a planet, first you’ll need a massive, reasonably dense cloud of cold gas and dust. Luckily, later generations of the cosmos have provided just that. These clouds, rich in hydrogen, helium and

20 amazing answers t o curious

Of the hundreds of thousands of asteroids in our solar system, it is all too feasible that one could strike Earth. If scientists discover this is likely to happen, what are our options for defending ourselves – and who will make the key decisions? Tomas Weber reports

Flicking through the pages of BBC Sky at Night Magazine each month, you’d be forgiven for thinking astronomers have black holes pinned down. Whether it’s the dramatic imaging of black hole shadows by

SNR 0509-67.5. Calcium is shown in blue and ...