Streamed live on Mar 16, 2026.

Main sequence stars spend most of their time being… normal. Fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores. Producing radiation. But as their stockpiles of hydrogen run out they switch to other fuels, starting to climb the ladder of the periodic table of elements. And this is when things get weird. As we get more and more observations of the cosmos, our understanding gets more detailed. In this episode we look at all the ways a star can die and the updates that we've learned in the past 20 years of Astronomy Cast.

Image Credit: NASA Galex

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In this episode, we'd like to thank: Burry Gowen, Eric Lee, Jeanette Wink, Michael Purcell, Andrew Poelstra, David, David Rossetter, Ed, Gerhard Schwarzer, Jason Kwong, Joe McTee, Sergey Manouilov, Siggi Kemmler, Sergio Sancevero