Stellar evolution

Rapid observations using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed the explosive death of a star just as the blast wave burst through the front of the star. For the first time, astronomers have revealed the shape of the explosion in its earliest and most fleeting phase. This brief phase was not observable even a day later, and it helps answer a host of questions about how massive stars become supernovae. Photo: ESO

Supernova explosion shape revealed hours after discovery

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26 hours after its discovery in the galaxy NGC 3621 (in the direction of the Hydra cluster, about 22 million light-years away), spectropolarimetry observations on ESO's Very Large Telescope revealed for the first time the early geometry of the explosion — when the shock erupted
This image from the ALMA telescope shows the star system HD101584 and the complex gas clouds surrounding the binary pair. The clouds are the result of two stars that shared a common outer layer in the last moments of their lives. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Olofsson et al., : Robert Cumming.

Dead and Alive: Astronomers Reveal Star Pairs That Are Changing Our Universe

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Astronomers have discovered for the first time pairs of binary star systems, consisting of the remnant of a dead star (a white dwarf) and a living star (a main sequence star), within young clusters
A massive magnetic helium star, on its way to becoming a magnetizer. Figure: ESO

A new type of star has been discovered: a massive magnetic helium star

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Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory discovered that the star HD 45166 is a neutron star about to become a megastar
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