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Dusty Beginnings of a Star This artist's rendering gives us a glimpse into a cosmic nursery as a star is born from the dark, swirling dust and gas of this cloud. Stars form when dark dust from the cloud begins to clump together under the influence of its own gravity. The infalling material forms a disk as it spirals inward, which feeds material onto the forming star at its center. Jets of material that shoot from the inner disk and protostar herald its birth. Planets form out of the remnants of the disk of material that surrounds the infant star. This leads to a question that has long perplexed astronomers about the nature of brown dwarfs, objects that fall between planets and stars in terms of their temperature and mass.

Don't Miss: A Supernova science talk by astrophysicist Thomas Haworth

5 April 2023

New Scientist's weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn't miss

A young boy walks across dusty arid desert land at sunset. Location: Djenne ( Djenn?? ), Mopti, Mali, Africa

The best science fiction books out in 2023

28 December 2022

CERN-inspired stories, a feminist retelling of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and a new deep future from Annalee Newitz: sci-fi fans have a lot to look forward to in 2023

Randall Munroe on answering the strangest scientific questions

12 October 2022

The cartoonist and engineer reveals what percentage of all humans who have ever lived are your ancestors, and what might happen if you pumped pure ammonia into your stomach (don't)

Don't Miss: Galwad, a multimedia climate-responsibility experience

21 September 2022

New Scientist's weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn't miss

Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in Lucasfilm's ANDOR

Don't Miss: Andor, prequel to the Star Wars spin-off Rogue One

14 September 2022

New Scientist's weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn't miss

DDEW4X Diana Schiepp demonstrates the world-wide data communication on an IBM Web Server 400 at the Internet Fair in Berlin on the 29th of May in 1997.

Escape review: An account of the internet's intimate early days

7 September 2022

Escape, a thoughtful book by Marie Le Conte, recalls a time when people tended to organise themselves into small communities around blogs and other online hangouts. Should we go back?

A man working on a laptop at home at night.; Shutterstock ID 1069794632; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Two noir sci-fi novels show crushing despair can make great reading

24 August 2022

Victor Manibo's The Sleepless and Joma West's Face are noir-inflected novels that compel with their bleak visions and great writing, both coming from distinct perspectives, says Sally Adee