SUNSET: 
Star Cluster Runs Away From Home
A hive of stars is sailing toward Earth at more than 2 million miles per hour — and racing away from the giant galaxy it used to call home.
Pro-Am Collaboration Yields Stunning Images
Amateur astronomers have teamed up with the pros to produce four stunning multiwavelength images of galaxies M101, M81, M51, and Centaurus A.
A New Galactic Yardstick
Astronomers have developed a new method to measure distances to bright but faraway galaxies, a tool which will help better constrain the expansion rate of the universe.
Fooling with the Universe
This year’s April Fools' provides a wealth of alarming results. Catch up on all the scientific shenanigans here.
Dust in the Heart of Circinus
Infrared observations of the Circinus Galaxy may help reveal the shape of the dusty region fueling its active galactic nucleus and shed light on what governs dust structures in other galaxies.
Dark Matter Spotted in the Milky Way?
A team of astronomers claim to have the most compelling case for annihilating dark matter yet.
Direct Evidence of Big Bang Inflation
Researchers with an experiment based at the South Pole have discovered the long-sought "smoking gun" for inflation. The signal was hidden in polarization patterns in the cosmic microwave background and confirms physicists' audacious theory of how the Big Bang happened.
"Proof of Inflationary Universe" to be Announced
Rumors are flying that the long-sought "smoking gun" for inflation has been found in polarization patterns in the cosmic microwave background. If so, it would confirm the inflation theory for how and why the Big Bang happened.
Hubble Displays Galactic Jellyfish
These stunning new images of spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 highlight its violent encounter with the intracluster plasma of Abell 3627, which is stripping away its gas and forming stars in the streamers.
Rocky Encounter with Stellar Lighthouse
Asteroid debris might be bombarding a radio pulsar in the constellation Puppis.
Mystery of the Missing Galaxy Clusters
Astronomers have counted up the number of galaxy clusters in the cosmos and found a problem: the number is much lower than they expected. What's going on?
Galaxies Grow By Snacking
Evidence from observations and computer simulations supports a picture of galaxy growth that isn't dominated by the rough-and-tumble crashes of big galaxies. Instead, most of the universe's stellar metropolises appear to feed themselves with nibbles instead of feasts.
Galactic Runts Carry Beefy Black Holes
Astronomers have found supermassive black holes in 151 dwarf galaxies, surprising expectations and providing a time machine into black hole formation.
Gaia Launches to Pinpoint a Billion Stars
Gaia launched flawlessly Thursday morning at 9:12 UTC (4:12 a.m. Eastern Standard Time). This long-awaited mission will precisely map the distances and motions of 1 billion stars in our galaxy.
A Double Black Hole?
Strange emission from a distant galaxy paints an enigmatic picture of what’s happening inside its core. One solution: instead of one supermassive black hole, the galaxy hosts two trapped in a tight dance around each other.
Triple Collision in Infant Galaxy
A complex of three bright, star-forming clumps called Himiko is merging in the early universe. With its light reaching us from when the universe was only 800 million years old, this primordial galaxy could yield insight into the elusive process of early galaxy formation.
A Galaxy Near Cosmic Dawn
Astronomers have confirmed that light from a distant galaxy is reaching us from about 700 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy's emission hints that star formation during that era might have proceeded at a much faster rate than previously thought.
Source Found for Magellanic Stream
New observations solve the origins of a long rivulet of gas encircling the Milky Way.
"Smoking Gun" from Galactic Smashup?
Observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest that something has slammed into the spiral galaxy NGC 1232. But you'd never know it from the galaxy's unperturbed appearance
Cat’s Paw Nebula: Nearby Mini-Starburst?
The Cat's Paw Nebula is home to many bright, young stars. But thousands of fainter stars concealed behind dust reveal themselves in a new infrared image.
