starburst

[stahr-burst]

noun

1. a pattern of lines or rays radiating from a central point.

2. Astronomy.,  an intense and sudden episode of star formation in a galaxy.

3. Photography.,  a camera lens attachment that produces star shapes of reflected light.

starburst

/ ˈstɑːˌbɜːst /

noun

1. a pattern of rays or lines radiating from a light source

2. photog a lens attachment which produces a starburst effect

starburst

1. The rapid formation of large numbers of new stars in a galaxy at a rate high enough to alter the structure of the galaxy significantly. Starburst galaxies, which are very luminous, form stars at rates that are between tens and hundreds of times faster than those of ordinary galaxies. Initial star formation is believed to be brought on by violent events such as collisions, or near collisions, with other galaxies, in which shockwaves cause the gases in the interstellar medium to collapse into protostars. The resulting stars are generally massive and short-lived. These stars become supernovae that create further shock waves, triggering yet more star formation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of starburst¹

First recorded in 1830–40, for an earlier sense; 1950–55 starburst for def. 1; 1980–85 starburst for def. 2; 1965–70 starburst for def. 3; star ( def. ) + burst ( def. )

Example Sentences

Mars Wrigley North America, for example, announced last month that starting in 2026, they will offer product options without synthetic dyes for M&M’s, Skittles Original, Extra Gum Spearmint, and Starburst Original—but these are additions, not replacements, for the original, dye-containing versions.

From Salon

Naidorf’s deep humanity, reflected in the title of his now out-of-print 2018 memoir, “More Humane: An Architectural Memoir,” extended to all living things, including doting on his 13-year-old cat, Ziggy Starburst, with whom he shared a birthday — and even small creatures in distress, like a dying bee that he found on his kitchen floor that he carried outside to die, as he put it, “with dignity in nature,” and a snail with a broken shell in his yard that he gently tended to.

From Los Angeles Times

Among them: Shin’en Kan, the Bartlesville, Okla., home of oil heir Joe Price, clad in Kentucky coal and highlighted with “starburst” glass tube windows; the onion-shaped, red steel tube-affixed Ford House in Aurora, Ill.; and the Bavinger House in Norman, Okla., a spiraling mound of sandstone anchored around a central mast and employing, among many other materials, oil field drill stems, recycled glass cullet and steel aircraft struts.

From Los Angeles Times

Representations of the religious teacher started out as nearly abstract symbols a few thousand years ago — a starburst shape inside a spiraling whorl, for example, which configures an emanation of light within an eternal flow.

From Los Angeles Times

This study provides the first solid observational evidence that spheroids can form directly through intense star formation within the cores of highly luminous starburst galaxies in the early Universe, based on a new perspective from the submillimeter band.

From Science Daily