The following is a list of stars with resolved images, that is,
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
s whose images have been
resolved beyond a point source. Aside from the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
, observed from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
, stars are exceedingly small in apparent size, requiring the use of special high-resolution equipment and techniques to image. For example,
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant of spectral type M1-2 and one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. It is usually the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orion ...
, the first star other than the Sun to be directly imaged, has an angular diameter of only 50
milliarcsecond
A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The na ...
s (mas).
[
]
List
See also
*Doppler imaging
Inhomogeneous structures on stellar surfaces, i.e. temperature differences, chemical composition or magnetic fields, create characteristic distortions in the spectral lines due to the Doppler effect. These distortions will move across spectral li ...
which produces maps of the surfaces of stars
*Zeeman–Doppler imaging
In astrophysics, Zeeman–Doppler imaging is a tomography, tomographic technique dedicated to the cartography of stellar magnetic fields, as well as surface brightness and temperature distributions.
This method makes use of the ability of magneti ...
which maps the magnetic fields of stars
*List of directly imaged exoplanets
This is a list of extrasolar planets that have been Methods of detecting extrasolar planets#Direct imaging, directly observed, sorted by observed separations. This method works best for young planets that emit infrared light and are far from the g ...
*Angular resolution
Angular resolution describes the ability of any image-forming device such as an optical or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an eye, to distinguish small details of an object, thereby making it a major determinant of image resolution. ...
*Angular diameter
The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular distance describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the visual angle, and in optics, it is ...
*List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs
This list covers all known stars, brown dwarfs, and sub-brown dwarfs within of the Sun. So far, 131 such objects have been found, of which only 22 are bright enough to be visible without a telescope. The visible light needs to reach or exce ...
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Images
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...
Astronomy image articles