CSS Selector: What does the asterisk mean in the following 2 lines

Question

.style1  * {
   vertical-align: middle;
}

..If I take it out, things with this style are no longer vertically aligned.

Answer 1

* is the wildcard selector, it's selecting anything within/under an element with the style1 class on it.

Answer 2

It's the Universal Selector, and will match any element. The selector you have written will match any element which is a descendant of an element with the class "style1".