Variable stars are stars that have regular or semi-regular, periodically varying brightnesses, and they have been known since medieval times. One of the most famous is known as Algol, which is Arabic for "Demon Star." Its brightness varies by more than...

Variable Star is a 2006 novel written by Spider Robinson based on the surviving seven pages of an eight page 1955 novel outline by the late Robert A. Heinlein. It describes the coming of age of a young musician who signs on to the crew of a starship as...

Shedding mass at a furious rate and shining 1.5 million times more brightly than the sun, the aging Milky Way star AG Carinae is having a final fling. Classified in this phase as a luminous blue variable, AG Carinae is some 50 times...

When a white dwarf, a type of compact star, pulls matter from a close stellar companion, periodic fireworks can result. Over the years, astronomers have found a multitude of these pairs of mercurial stars, known as cataclysmic variables. Now, scientists have for the...