Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies

Stellar, planetary, and galactic astrophysics examines how stars form, evolve, and die, how planets assemble around them, and how billions of stars together shape the structure and history of galaxies like the Milky Way. Data from space missions such as Gaia and Kepler have dramatically expanded the catalog of known exoplanets and stellar populations, allowing researchers to test models of planetary system formation across a wide range of stellar environments. Central open questions include how massive stars influence their surroundings through radiation and explosive deaths, what conditions allow Earth-like planets to form and survive, and how the Milky Way assembled its current structure over cosmic time. Ongoing surveys continue to reveal unexpected complexity in stellar populations and planetary architectures, pushing theorists to refine models of both individual objects and the large-scale galactic processes that connect them.

Works

280,930

Total citations

3,999,699

Keywords

Stellar AstrophysicsExoplanetsGalactic EvolutionStellar EvolutionMilky WayGaia Mission