The journal · The real sky
Stars
How stars are born, how they die, and why the sky you see is deeply unrepresentative.
8 articles.
Betelgeuse: is it about to explode?
Yes, within about a hundred thousand years. Not the answer people want, and I've been asked on a lot of trails.
4 min read
Binary stars and why most stars have company
The Sun being alone is closer to unusual than typical. Look up and most of what you see has company.
2 min read
The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, explained simply
One chart. Temperature across, brightness up. If you learn one diagram in astronomy, learn this one.
4 min read
Neutron stars and pulsars
More than the Sun's mass in a city-sized ball, spinning hundreds of times a second.
4 min read
Red dwarfs: the most common stars you've never seen
The overwhelming majority of stars, and you can't see a single one without a telescope. I find that humbling every clear night.
4 min read
How stars are born
Cold gas, gravity, and a threshold of about ten million degrees. I've watched the raw material from a mountain in Taiwan.
4 min read
What happens when a star dies
Three possible endings. Mass picks which one you get.
4 min read
Supernovae: the different types explained
The classification is based on spectra, so the names make no physical sense. Frankly, nobody would design it this way.
4 min read
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