The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy may not be sleeping, after all. Previously, scientists believed that the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way was a sleeping giant. It would periodically awaken to devour any star of gas clouds that fell into it. It would then release radiation …
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has delivered so many incredible images of objects and structures in space that it’s easy to forget that NASA has a whole lot of other space-scanning hardware working overtime to make new discoveries of their own. One of those is the Chandra X-ray Observatory which, as you can tell by the …
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. …
A blast of radio energy called a fast radio burst has been detected repeating within our own galaxy. FRBs are believed to be caused by magnetars, which are super-dense stars that crack and collapse in on themselves, creating powerful blasts of energy to radiate through space. The FRBs detected in the Milky Way have been …
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 …
Astronomers have discovered some truly ancient stars hanging around the edges of the Milky Way galaxy. The scientists believe the stars are all that remains of an ancient system that was torn apart by our own galaxy long ago. The stars are so old that they may be the last of their kind. The Milky …
What are the actual odds that we’ll discover intelligent alien life in our galaxy? Not good, unfortunately. The size of the Milky Way means it’s likely that life exists out there, but finding it will be near impossible… for now. We’ve not even begun to scratch the surface of our exploration of the cosmos, and …
Scientists using data from the Kepler Space Telescope estimate that there are roughly 6 billion Earth-like worlds in the Milky Way galaxy. The researchers suggest the odds of a G-type star hosting an Earth-like planet are roughly one-in-five. A study published early this week suggested there are likely at least 36 intelligent alien civilizations in …
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 …
Studying a galaxy from the inside can be a tricky thing, but astronomers have still managed to learn a great deal about our own Milky Way. One of the things scientists think they know about our galaxy — and many other galaxies like our own — is that they revolve around a black hole. In …
