
Kite-like Galaxy Trails a Million-light-year String of Gas and Star-forming Knots
A galaxy 600 million light-years away appears to be trailing gas in a string 1.2 million light-years long, but explaining its origins presents a challenge.

Explore the Night with Bob King
Time-lapse Animations Reveal a Universe in Transformation
Deep-sky objects may appear static throughout our lifetime but by carefully "blinking" archival and current images we can discern real changes in their appearance.

Explore the Night with Bob King
See Summer's Best “Gobbled” Globulars
Mergers between the Milky Way and long-ago dwarf galaxies have enriched our skies with dozens of iconic globular clusters. Many are visible in small telescopes.

Webb Telescope Tracks Universe's First Light
New results from the James Webb Space Telescope find that radiation from ordinary galaxies cleared the primordial haze left over from the Big Bang, allowing the first light to shine through the early universe.

Even Lonely Black Holes Need to Eat
Astronomers have found supermassive black holes in smaller galaxies are actually more likely to light up when they’re isolated in vast, cosmic voids.

Signal Found from Supermassive Duo's Second Black Hole
Astronomers have long suspected that a distant quasar harbors not one but two supermassive black holes. They've now detected OJ 287's second black hole.

James Webb Space Telescope Uncovers Hundreds of Galaxies in Early Universe
In the JWST version of the Hubble Deep Field, astronomers are discovering what galactic life was like in the earliest years of the universe.

Red Galaxies at Night, Astronomers' Delight: A Look at the “Hubble-Dark” Universe
JWST images of early galaxies have turned up a population of flat, red disks that may have been entirely missed by previous surveys.

“Rogue Black Hole” Could Be Something Much Simpler
An unusual streak of stars thought to have formed in the wake of a wandering supermassive black hole might just be a spiral galaxy seen edge-on.

The James Webb Space Telescope May Have Spotted a Baby Galaxy Merger
New JWST images reveal that one of the most distant objects ever observed is actually two baby galaxies on a possible collision course.

Distorted Galaxy Hints at the Nature of Dark Matter
Astronomers analyzed the gravitationally lensed image of a distant galaxy to test the nature of dark matter.

What the Discovery of Massive Early Galaxies Could Mean for Cosmology
JWST's detection of early galaxies that are far more massive than astronomers had expected could mean we need to rewrite our understanding of the cosmos.

This Galaxy Is Powerful, But Lonely Too
A large elliptical galaxy spewing a black hole–powered jet might have eaten its neighbors, leaving it on its own.

Generations of Stars Shape Their Galaxies, Webb Images Reveal
James Webb Space Telescope images reveal an intricate network in nearby galaxies, influenced by generations of star formation.

“The Sparkler” Might be Our Milky Way’s Long-Lost Twin
Astronomers are using compact groups of stars to probe the history of a galaxy in the adolescent universe dubbed "The Sparkler."

Italian Amateur Astronomer Discovers Dwarf Galaxies
Three dwarf galaxies around the Sculptor Galaxy have come to light thanks to the work of an amateur astronomer.

New Observations Reveal Galaxies Near and Far
Astronomers at this month's big winter conference explored intriguing small galaxies at various points in cosmic history.

Hubble and Webb Image Galaxies’ Lost Stars
Deep images of galaxy clusters reveals the light of wandering stars. What set these stars free from their hosts?

Amateur Astronomers Find Glowing Gas Arc Near Andromeda
An arc that glows green thanks to doubly ionized oxygen appears near the Andromeda Galaxy in a photo obtained by amateur astronomers.

Familiar Fluffy Triangulum Galaxy Has Hidden, Two-Armed Pattern
Astronomers have discovered that one of the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbors has dramatically changed its looks in the recent past.