Star: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Nov. 13, 2026

News •

For the first time, scientists have identified a green star | story | Kids News • Nov. 3, 2026, 3:00 AM ET (CBC)

Just in Time For Halloween, Astronomers Reveal a Dead Star Glowing an Eerie Shade of Green • Oct. 26, 2026, 6:01 AM ET (ScienceAlert)

“It Feels Like Something Out of Science Fiction”: Astronomers Find First Green Star • Oct. 19, 2026, 5:00 PM ET (Nautilus)

Astronomers discover the 1st ever green star, a cosmic zombie just in time for Halloween • Oct. 15, 2026, 4:00 PM ET (Space)

Photos and Videos

Open cluster NGC 290

imaging using ultraviolet light

Diagram illustrating how astronomers calculate the distance to a star using parallax: Earth is shown in two positions on opposite sides of its orbit around the Sun, with lines extending to a nearby star X and further to distant background stars. The apparent shift in star X's position, measured as angle A, is used to determine its distance, with the baseline labeled as 186,000,000 miles.

Night sky view of the constellation Orion, with three bright stars in a straight line forming Orion's Belt and a faint pink glow of the Orion Nebula below the belt.

illustration depicting the light curve of Algol

extrasolar planet Kepler-16b

Fomalhaut and dust belt

brown dwarf 2MASSWJ 1207334−393254

Learn about the different types of stars categorized according to their mass and temperature - red dwarfs, red giants, supergiants, white, and brown dwarf stars

$Understand how diffraction of light affects stellar images$

Learn about Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's elucidation in understanding black holes

Know about the various methods used to discover numerous exoplanets

Know about the various historical supernovae - GRB 111209A, V838 Monocerotis, N 63A, and SN 1006

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Topics

Mintaka main sequence star shell star brightness scintillation stellar density stellar diameter stellar wind stellar population double star chemical element subatomic particle atom Galaxy Solar system Nebula Cosmic microwave background Small body Planet X-ray source

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Key People

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Frank Schlesinger

American astronomer

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Herbert Hall Turner

British astronomer

Edward Emerson Barnard

American astronomer

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Henry Draper

American astronomer

William Herschel

William Herschel

British-German astronomer

Painting of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe wearing a black robe with a white ruffled collar and a gold chain necklace with a large pendant.

Tycho Brahe

Danish astronomer

Hans Bethe.

Hans Bethe

American physicist

Lev Davidovich Landau

Lev Davidovich Landau

Russian physicist

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel

German astronomer

Arthur Stanley Eddington.

Arthur Eddington

British scientist

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Eudoxus of Cnidus

Greek mathematician and astronomer

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

British-born American astronomer

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Otto Struve

American astronomer

Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

American astronomer

Karl Schwarzschild

Karl Schwarzschild

German astronomer

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Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming

American astronomer

Otto Heckmann at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) one-metre Schmidt telescope at La Silla, Chile, 1971.

Otto Heckmann

German astronomer

Hertzsprung, c. 1930

Ejnar Hertzsprung

Danish astronomer

Swings, Pol

Pol Swings

Belgian astronomer

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Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn

Dutch astronomer

View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).

Astronomy and Space Quiz

27 True-or-False Questions from Britannica’s Most Difficult Science Quizzes

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

1 July 2002: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite reveals a massive solar eruption more than 30 times the Earth's diameter. The eruption formed when a loop of a magnetic field over the surface of the Sun trapped hot gas.

Brightest Star in the Solar System

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

Ursa major constellation illustration art. (Big Dipper) stars, space, night sky)

Stars: Explosions in Space

The orbits of the planets and other elements of the solar system, including asteroids, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, comet

Space Odyssey