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Astronomy

An artist impression of HD 45166, an unusually magnetic star

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Astronomers have found a strange new type of extremely magnetic star

A new type of star may eventually collapse and become a magnetar – a highly magnetic neutron star, whose origins have been a cosmic mystery for decades

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What are the weirdest stars in the universe?

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How to spot the 2023 Perseid meteor shower as it peaks this weekend

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Release Date September 12, 2019 10:00AM (EDT) Caption Anyone who has ever peered at Saturn through a small telescope is immediately enticed by its elegant rings, which make the far-flung planet one of the most exotic-looking, opulent worlds in the solar system. The latest view of Saturn from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures exquisite details of the ring system?which looks like a phonograph record with grooves that represent detailed structure within the rings?and atmospheric details that once could only be captured by spacecraft visiting the distant world. One such intriguing feature is the long-lasting hexagon-shaped structure circling the planet's north pole. It is a mysterious six-sided pattern caused by a high-speed jet stream. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft first discovered the "hexagon" during its flyby in 1981. The hexagon is so large that four Earths could fit inside its boundaries. (There is no similar structure at Saturn's south pole.) Other features, however, are not as long lasting. A large storm in the north polar region spotted by Hubble last year has disappeared. Smaller, convective storms?called super "thunderheads"?such as the one just above the center of the planet's image, also come and go.

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How to spot Saturn’s rings through a telescope

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A lime green circle with an oblong purple ring around it in space

Space

The Ring Nebula glows green in a stunning new JWST image

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An image from Euclid in infrared light taken to check that the instrument works as expected

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Euclid space telescope sends back amazing first images of the cosmos

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Young star V960 Mon with its long spiral arms

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Stunning photo of a young star hints how Jupiter-like planets form

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Space

Two-faced star seems to have one hydrogen side and one helium side

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Space

Could we put out the sun with a sun-sized orb of water?

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Space

Stars found hidden in huge cloud wrapped around the Milky Way

The Magellanic stream is a cloud of dust and gas that wraps around our galaxy. It has long been thought to host stars, but they have never been seen until now

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Space

JWST celebrates first year of science with awesome star-forming image

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The 8 most dazzling images from JWST’s first year of science

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See the remarkable photos up for Astronomy Photographer of the Year

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Space

How to spot Jupiter’s icy moons

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