81–100 of 151 results

Milky Way

Buckyballs Solve Interstellar Mystery

Soccer ball-shaped molecules lurking in the dusty corners of the Milky Way help resolve a long-standing problem.

Milky Way

Witnessing Light Echoes from a Neutron Star

X-ray echoes from binary star system Circinus X-1 are helping astronomers measure its distance from Earth.

Mapping the Milky Way with embedded star clusters

Milky Way

Mapping the Outer Milky Way

Stars still embedded in their natal clouds act as signposts to map the Sagittarius-Carina, Perseus, and Outer spiral arms of the Milky Way.

High-energy X-rays in Milky Way's center

Milky Way

Mysterious X-rays Spotted in Galactic Center

NASA’s NuSTAR mission has detected an unexpected haze of high-energy X-rays in our galaxy’s center, perhaps the signal of a mass stellar graveyard.

ripples in disk

Milky Way

Ripples in the Milky Way

Astronomers have detected what look like four undulations in the Milky Way Galaxy’s disk. If the structures are all part of the disk, our galaxy is more than half again as large as we thought it was.

Milky Way Galaxy, NASA / JPL-Caltech

Stellar Science

New Stars On Strange Orbits in Milky Way

Astronomers have found two just-born star clusters an incredible 16,000 light-years above the plane of the Milky Way galaxy.

stars arond Sgr A*

Black Holes

New Stars in the Shadow of a Black Hole

New observations suggest that several dozen low-mass stars, and eventually perhaps even planets, are forming just 2 light-years from our galaxy’s supermassive black hole.

Trifid Nebula in near-infrared light

Milky Way

Cepheids Map Milky Way - and Beyond

Cepheid variable stars are helping astronomers see what our galaxy looks like from within.

Yellowballs

Citizen Science: Projects & Collaboration

Yellowballs: A New View of Star Formation

Thanks to the help of the general public, astronomers have discovered a new signature marking a hidden phase of star formation.

G2 approaches Sgr A*

Black Holes

G2 Survives Black Hole Pass

The gaseous object G2 has survived its swing around the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, but the questions of what it is and where it comes from remain unanswered.

local supercluster

Galaxies

Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster

Astronomers have mapped the cosmic watershed and discovered a massive supercluster that extends more than 500 million light-years and contains 100,000 large galaxies. The Milky Way sits on the edge of this humongous structure.

Planck map with cosmic infrared background

Milky Way

Big Bang Inflation Evidence Inconclusive

New analyses suggest that observations heralded as evidence for the universe’s brief growth spurt don’t conclusively show what researchers thought they did.

Milky Way's magnetic field

Milky Way

Planck's Magnetic Map of Our Galaxy

The ESA's Planck mission has released one of the most detailed maps of the Milky Way's magnetic field.

Milky Way

Young Stars Lead the Magellanic Stream

Astronomers have discovered hot, young stars in the Leading Arm of the Magellanic Stream, calling the history of the Magellanic Clouds once again into question.

Milky Way

Fingerprinting the Circumgalactic Medium

A new study finds the space surrounding dwarf galaxies in the nearby universe to be shockingly pristine.

Milky Way

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.

Milky Way

Mapping the Milky Way's Arms

Astronomers continue to debate whether our home galaxy has big arms and some smaller appendages — or, as new results suggest, four major arms.

Milky Way

New 3D Maps of Milky Way's Bulge

New 3D maps of the Milky Way's central bulge of stars show a distinctively peanut-like shape. The maps give clues about how our galaxy evolved to its present-day form.

Milky Way

Astronomers Discover Black Hole's Dieting Strategy

The Milky Way's central supermassive black hole eats only a fraction of the gas available to it. New X-ray observations suggest how the beast manages to stay so trim when faced with a feast.

Galaxies

Source Found for Magellanic Stream

New observations solve the origins of a long rivulet of gas encircling the Milky Way.

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