When astronomers peer into the depths of the Milky Way galaxy, which is our home, they can see a lot of stuff going on. There are endless stars swirling masses of gas and other features, but one light source, in particular, has caught the attention of researchers that are trying to understand exactly what it …
Countless images of galaxies have been snapped over the decades, but thanks to ever-advancing imaging technology, they just keep getting better and better. A new photo of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy — officially known as Messier 83 — might be the most impressive galactic image yet. The image was captured by DECam, the Dark Energy …
Scientists have discovered the remains of an ancient “fossil galaxy” hiding inside of our own Milky Way. The galaxy is what’s left of a very old galaxy that collided with our own galaxy a long time ago, scientists think. The galaxy was identified by spotting old stars with different makeup deep within the Milky Way. …
Scientists using NASA’s Fermi space telescope have spotted a distant galaxy that looks strangely familiar. The galaxy has the appearance of a TIE Fighter, a famous and fictional ship from Star Wars. At a distance of 500 million light-years, there’s little chance we’d ever visit, but it still looks cool from a distance. Most of …
NASA scientists have detected a massive halo of plasma surrounding the nearby Andromeda galaxy. The halo, a massive orb of influence stretching deep into space, reaches halfway to our own Milky Way galaxy. Eventually, Andromeda and the Milky Way are expected to merge into one galaxy. We hear a lot about the Milky Way and …
Scientists are trying to narrow down the possible sources of gamma radiation coming from the center of the Milky Way. The latest research shoots down the possibility that the radiation is coming from the destruction of dark matter. Going forward, additional research will be needed to further narrow the possible sources. In space, size is …
The Hubble Space Telescope, operated by NASA and the ESA, captured an image of the galaxy NGC 7513, which is currently speeding away from Earth at an incredible rate. The galaxy is moving nearly 1,000 miles per second away from Earth. The expansion of the universe is what drives many objects in space farther and …
Astronomers discovered that old, massive galaxies tend to be messy and disorderly, and set out to explain why. Computer simulations revealed that large ancient galaxies have likely been swallowing up their smaller neighbors for billions of years. This case of “cosmic munchies” results in unpredictable movement and a messy appearance. Visit BGR’s homepage for more …
A black hole carved a hole right through the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, which is located some 390 million light years from Earth. Astronomers believe the explosion is the largest ever observed, besting the previous record-holder by a factor of five. The discovery is the subject of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. Visit BGR’s …
From our perch here on Earth, it’s impossible for most of us to notice changes happening in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Astronomers, on the other hand, have tools at their disposal that make observing trends in our galaxy a bit easier, and one development, in particular, is leaving scientists scratching their heads: The …
