Star

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Physical / Universe / Planetary System / Star
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star : a self-luminous gaseous spheroidal celestial body of great mass which produces energy by means of nuclear fusion reactions — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

Thesaurus

Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords

Encyclopedia

Star is a luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye from Earth during the night, appearing as a multitude of fixed luminous points in the sky due to their immense distance from Earth. Historically, the most prominent stars were grouped into constellations and asterisms, the brightest of which gained proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. However, most of the stars in the Universe, including all stars outside our galaxy, the Milky Way, are invisible to the naked eye from Earth. Indeed, most are invisible from Earth even through the most powerful telescopes. — Wikipedia

Star (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Star (COSMOS: The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy)

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Adventures

Explore related posts on Cosma …

Touch the Sun - Remember how Icarus wanted to touch the Sun, but met his demise instead? Well, scientists at NASA wanted to touch the Sun too, but unlike Icarus, they succeeded! Better yet, they are beginning to share what they learned by doing it! Before we get into all of that, let’s go back and start at the … Continue reading Touch the Sun

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Inspiration

Hubble Skymap puts the night sky at your fingertips any time of day. Roam the Milky Way to find a selection of stars and nebulae as seen by Hubble. To explore the skymap, scroll, double click, or pinch/swipe to zoom in and out. Roll over an icon to see the object, click to zero in, and click again for a detailed view and a description. Drag the map to navigate. — Hubble Skymap (NASA Science)

Hubble Skymap (NASA Science)

Big Idea 8: We Are All Made of Stardust (Big Ideas in Astronomy, International Astronomical Union)

Talks about Stars (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)
Articles about Stars (Big Think)

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Innovation

Science

Space, But Messier (YouTube Channel)

Stars (NASA Science)
Life and Death of Stars Interactive (NASA’s Universe of Learning)

Stars Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)
Stars Theme Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)
Star Formation Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)
Life and Death of Star Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)

Life Cycle of Stars (Astrum, YouTube Playlist)

Stars (SciShow Space, YouTube Playlist)

Star Formation (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy)

Stars (Lunar & Planetary Institute)

Stars (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)

Stars (Wolfram Alpha)
Star Clusters (Wolfram Alpha)
Star Charts (Wolfram Alpha)

Commerce

Buying Stars and Star Names (International Astonomical Union)
Naming of Astronomical Objects (International Astonomical Union)
Naming Stars (International Astronomical Union)

GSC-II (Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy)
Guide Star Catalog (Wikipedia)

CNS3 – Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars, 3rd Edition
Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars (Wikipedia)

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Preservation

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Participation

Education

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website)

Stars (Imagine the Universe, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Stars (Cosmos4Kids)
Stars (Space Scoop)

Star Learning Resources (National Air and Space Museum)

Stars (Astronomy Center, ComPADRE)

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Course

Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Low Mass Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
White Dwarfs & Planetary Nebulae (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
High Mass Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Neutron Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Black Holes (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Binary and Multiple Stars (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)
Star Clusters (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)

Community

Organization

International Astronomical Union Division G – Stars and Stellar Physics
American Association of Variable Star Observers

News

Stars (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)
Star Formation (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)
Stellar Evolution (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)

Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers

Stellar Astronomy (EurekaAlert, AAAS)
Stellar Astronomy (JSTOR)
Stellar Astronomy (NPR Archives)

Stars (Sky & Telescope)
Stars (Astronomy Magazine)

Stars (Science Daily)
Stars (Phys.org)

Recent News from Phys.org …

Roman Space Telescope poised to transform hunt...
on May 6, 2026 at 9:10 pm
Astronomers have long known that neutron stars, the crushed cores left behind after massive stars explode, should be scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. However, most of them are effectively invisible. A new study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics suggests that NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could spot them anyway.
How quasars shut down star formation in the early...
on May 6, 2026 at 8:10 pm
Supermassive black holes lurk at the centers of massive galaxies, including our own Milky Way. Puzzlingly, supermassive black holes more than a billion times the mass of the sun appear to exist just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was less than 5% of its current age. As interstellar gas spirals towards such black holes, it accelerates to extreme speeds, heats up, and emits intense radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, creating a "quasar."
A new way to read the universe could sharpen...
on May 6, 2026 at 7:50 pm
An international team led by researchers at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) has developed a new method that could significantly improve our understanding of the expansion of the universe and the nature of dark energy.
J1152 is an unusual long-period dwarf nova with...
on May 6, 2026 at 6:40 pm
Astronomers from the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and elsewhere have conducted photometric and spectroscopic observations of a cataclysmic variable system designated SRGA J115215.0−510656. Results of the new observations, published April 29 on the arXiv pre-print server, indicate that the investigated system is an unusual long-period dwarf nova.
Webb and Hubble find massive star clusters emerge...
on May 6, 2026 at 3:20 pm
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope together with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have looked deeply at thousands of young star clusters in four nearby galaxies, studying clusters at different stages of evolution. Their findings show that more massive star clusters emerge more quickly from the clouds they are born in, clearing away gas and filling the galaxy with ultraviolet light. The result gives us a better understanding of star formation in galaxies, as well as […]