Galaxies - News Articles

Galaxies in the News

Coming Face-to-Face With Our Galaxy's Black Hole Discovery - December 19, 2011
At the center of our galaxy resides an invisible monster, a dark giant composed of the shredded and swallowed remains of stars, nebulae and solar systems. It has captured enormous nearby stars into orbit, causing them to whip around the galactic center at breakneck speeds until they too become just another snack. It may sound like science fiction but all observations indicate it's indeed a fact: a supermassive black hole - called Sagittarius A* - exists. It's real, it's huge, and it's hungry. Sagittarius A* is a monstrous black hole estimated to contain the mass equivalent to 4 million suns, packed into a space less than the distance between Earth and the sun, resulting in an incredibly dense object known as a black hole -- in the case of Sgr A*, a supermassive black hole. Although Sgr A* is itself invisible the effect of its gravity on surrounding stars has been seen, some of which orbit it at speeds of over 600 miles per second!

In a Star's Final Days, Astronomers Hunt 'Signal of Impending Doom' Science Daily - December 1, 2011

An otherwise nondescript binary star system in the Whirlpool Galaxy has brought astronomers tantalizingly close to their goal of observing a star just before it goes supernova. In the first survey of its kind, the researchers have been scanning 25 nearby galaxies for stars that brighten and dim in unusual ways, in order to catch a few that are about to meet their end. In the three years since the study began, this particular unnamed binary system in the Whirlpool Galaxy was the first among the stars they've cataloged to produce a supernova.

Unexpectedly Heavy Stars from Long Ago Puzzle Astronomers Live Science - December 1, 2011
Ancient stars found in the outer reaches of our Milky Way are surprisingly chock full of some of the heaviest chemical elements, which could have formed in the galaxy's early history, a new study reveals. When astronomers found abnormally large amounts of heavy elements like gold, platinum and uranium in some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way they were puzzled, because an abundance of very heavy metals is typically only seen in much later generations of stars. To investigate this mystery, researchers observed these ancient stars over the course of several years using the European Southern Observatory's fleet of telescopes in Chile. They trained their telescopes on 17 "abnormal" stars in the Milky Way that were found to be rich in the heaviest chemical elements.

Voyager Probes Detect "Invisible" Milky Way Glow National Geographic - December 1, 2011
Speeding toward interstellar space, NASA's twin Voyager probes have now truly peered outside the solar system - and they've seen something no human has glimpsed before. According to a new study, the two spacecraft have detected a type of ultraviolet light from other regions of our Milky Way galaxy that had previously been all but invisible due to the sun's glow.

A planet made of diamond PhysOrg - August 25, 2011
A once-massive star that's been transformed into a small planet made of diamond: that is what University of Manchester astronomers think they've found in the Milky Way.

Saturn has rings - this planet has diamonds MSNBC - August 25, 2011

A newly discovered alien planet that formed from a dead star is a real diamond in the rough. The super-high pressure of the planet, which orbits a rapidly pulsing neutron star, has likely caused the carbon within it to crystallize into an actual diamond, a new study suggests. The composition of the planet, which is about five times the size of Earth, is not its only outstanding feature.

"Diamond" Planet Found; May Be Stripped Star Live Science - August 25, 2011
The newfound planet orbits the pulsar so closely the entire system would fit inside the sun. An exotic planet as dense as diamond has been found in the Milky Way, and astronomers think the world is a former star that got transformed by its orbital partner. The odd planet was discovered orbiting what's known as a millisecond pulsar - a tiny, fast-spinning corpse of a massive star that died in a supernova. Astronomers estimate that the newfound planet is 34,175 miles (55,000 kilometers) across, or about five times Earth's diameter.

Striking Photo Looks Into the 'Eyes' of Cosmic Virgin Live Science - August 25, 2011

A spectacular new photo from an observatory in Chile has snapped a spectacular photo of two peculiar galaxies that scientists call "The Eyes." The new photo, released today (Aug. 24), shows a view of the Eyes from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The Eyes are about 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) and are some 100,000 light-years apart. The cores of the two galaxies are bright white ovals that resemble a pair of eyes glowing in the dark when seen in a moderate-sized telescope, ESO officials said.

Galaxy sized twist in time pulls violating particles back into line PhysOrg - July 14, 2011

University of Warwick physicist has produced a galaxy sized solution which explains one of the outstanding puzzles of particle physics, while leaving the door open to the related conundrum of why different amounts of matter and antimatter seem to have survived the birth of our Universe.

Most elliptical galaxies are 'like spirals' PhysOrg - June 20, 2011
The majority of 'elliptical' galaxies are not spherical but disc-shaped, resembling spiral galaxies such as our own Milky Way with the gas and dust removed, new observations suggest.

New Photos Show Lopsided Galaxy Called 'Meathook' Live Science - May 10, 2011
The asymmetrical Meathook galaxy, or NGC 2442, has one spiral arm tightly folded in on itself and is the site of a recent supernova. The other arm, which is dotted with recent star formation, extends far out from the galactic nucleus.

Astronomers find most distant galaxy candidate yet seen PhysOrg - January 26, 2011
Pushing the Hubble Space Telescope to the limit of its technical ability, an international collaboration of astronomers have found what is likely to be the most distant and ancient galaxy ...

Hubble telescope detects the oldest known galaxy BBC - January 26, 2011
The Hubble Space Telescope has detected what scientists believe may be the oldest galaxy ever observed. It is thought the galaxy is more than 13 billion years old and existed 480 million years after the Big Bang. A Nasa team says this was a period when galaxy formation in the early Universe was going into "overdrive".

Dark-Matter Galaxy Detected: Hidden Dwarf Lurks Nearby? National Geographic - January 15, 2011
Signs point to an invisible "Galaxy X" just outside our own. An entire galaxy may be lurking, unseen, just outside our own. The invisibility of "Galaxy X"- as the purported body has been dubbed - may be due less to its apparent status as a dwarf galaxy than to its murky location and its overwhelming amount of dark matter, astronomer Sukanya Chakrabarti speculates. Detectable only by the effects of its gravitational pull, dark matter is an invisible material that scientists think makes up more than 80 percent of the mass in the universe.

The impact of double black holes and radio galaxies in the Milky Way PhysOrg - January 4, 2011
Radio galaxies beam as much as one trillion solar-luminosities of radiation into space at radio wavelengths. They are therefore cosmic beacons, and the light from the most distant ones known was emitted back when the universe was only a few billions of years old (compared with its age today of about 13.7 billion years). The origin of this intense emission is thought to lie in the hot environment of a massive black hole at the galaxy's nucleus, with the radio emission being produced by electrons moving rapidly in strong magnetic fields. Astronomers seeking to better understand galaxies in general, and the context of the Milky Way's origins, want to know when and how radio galaxies formed, how they evolved, and how they impact their environments.

Mysterious Structures Balloon From Milky Way's Core National Geographic - November 10, 2010

Fermi telescope discovers new giant structure in our galaxy PhysOrg - November 9, 2010

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy.

Bubbles of Energy Are Found in Galaxy New York Times - November 10, 2010
Something big is going on at the center of the galaxy, and astronomers are happy to say they donÕt know what it is.

Huge Gamma Ray Bubbles Found Around Milky Way NASA - November 10, 2010
Did you know that our Milky Way Galaxy has huge bubbles emitting gamma rays from the direction of the galactic center? Neither did anybody. As the data from the Earth-orbiting Fermi satellite began acuminating (tapering gradually to a sharp point) over the past two years, however, a large and unusual feature toward our Galaxy's center became increasingly evident. The two bubbles are visible together as the red and white spotted oval surrounding the center of the above all sky image, released yesterday. The plane of our Galaxy runs horizontally across the image center. Assuming the bubbles emanate from our Galaxy's center, the scale of the bubbles is huge, rivaling the entire Galaxy in size, and spanning about 50,000 light years from top to bottom. Earlier indications of the bubbles has been found on existing all sky maps in the radio, microwave, and X-ray. The cause of the bubbles is presently unknown, but will likely be researched for years to come.

Space telescopes reveal previously unknown brilliant X-ray explosion in our Milky Way galaxy PhysOrg - October 22, 2010
Astronomers in Japan, using an X-ray detector on the International Space Station, and at Penn State University, using NASA's Swift space observatory, are announcing the discovery of an object newly emitting X-rays, which previously had been hidden inside our Milky Way galaxy in the constellation Centaurus.

Universe's Most Distant Object Spotted National Geographic - October 20, 2010
Galaxy emitted light just 600 million years after the big bang. A galaxy 13.12 billion light-years from Earth is the most distant object yet detected, a new study says. Astronomers spotted a faint glimmer of infrared light from this primitive galaxy, called UDFy-38135539, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Galaxy is most distant object yet BBC - October 20, 2010
A tiny faint dot in a Hubble picture has been confirmed as the most distant galaxy ever detected in the Universe. This collection of stars is so far away its light has taken more than 13 billion years to arrive at Earth.

'Galactic archaeologists' find origin of Milky Way's ancient stars PhysOrg - June 29, 2010

Many of the Milky Way's ancient stars are remnants of other smaller galaxies torn apart by violent galactic collisions around five billion years ago ...

Scientists get a look at the birth of the Milky Way PhysOrg - June 22, 2010
For the first time, a team of astronomers has succeeded in investigating the earliest phases of the evolutionary history of our home Galaxy, the Milky Way. The scientists, from the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at Bonn University and the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, deduce that the early Galaxy went from smooth to clumpy in just a few hundred million years.

VISTA Views the Sculptor Galaxy Science Daily - June 21, 2010

'Monster' Black Holes Activate When Galaxies Collide Space.com - June 21, 2010

Astronomers discover clue to origin of Milky Way gas clouds PhysOrg - May 26, 2010

Mysterious radio waves emitted from nearby galaxy New Scientist - April 23, 2010

Origins of the Milky Way PhysOrg - March 20, 2010

Old star is 'missing link' in galactic evolution PhysOrg - March 3, 2010

Home Computers Around the World Unite to Map the Milky Way Science Daily - February 11, 2010

Hubble Reaches the 'Undiscovered Country' of Primeval Galaxies PhysOrg - January 5, 2010

Scientists reveal Milky WayÕs magnetic attraction PhysOrg - January 6, 2010

Transparent universe reveals hidden galaxies New Scientist - December 2, 2009

Some of the Universe's First Galaxies Discovered Space.com - November 6, 2009

Stars Fueled by Dark Matter Could Hold Secrets to the Universe PhysOrg - November 3, 2009
Shedding Light on the Cosmic Skeleton PhysOrg - November 3, 2009
Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly
of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us.

Physicist Makes New High-resolution Panorama Of Milky Way Science Daily - October 29, 2009

Double Nucleus Galaxies: Ravenous Black Holes And Ripples In Space-Time Continuum Science Daily - September 15, 2009

Brilliant 360-Degree Panorama of the Milky Way Wired - September 14, 2009

Planck telescope beams back first images of the fall out after the Big Bang Telegraph.co.uk - September 17, 2009

NASA's Spitzer Images Out-of-This-World Galaxy Science Daily - August 5, 2009

The "eye" at the center of the galaxy is actually a monstrous black hole surrounded by a ring of stars.

Herschel space observatory - first image of Whirlpool Galaxy BBC - June 19, 2009

Milky Way's Turbulent Core in Hi-Res National Geographic - January 7, 2009
Milky Way 50 Percent Larger, Astronomers Discover Wired - January 6, 2009

There is a giant black hole at the center of our galaxy, a study has confirmed. BBC - December 10, 2008

There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a 16-year study by German astronomers has confirmed. They tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile. The black hole, said to be 27,000 light years from Earth, is four million times bigger than the Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them. According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.

Supermassive black hole at the Center of the Milky Way NASA - December 11, 2008

Hubble Snaps Rare Aligned Galaxies National Geographic - September 17, 2008

Thousand-ruby Galaxy: Pinwheel Shines In The Darkness Science Daily - September 3, 2008

Thousand-Ruby Galaxy National Geographic - September 2, 2008

How big can a black hole grow? New Scientist - September 3, 2008

Milky Way's black hole gets extreme close-up New Scientist - September 3, 2008

Closest Look Ever at the Edge of a Black Hole PhysOrg - September 3, 2008

Closest Look Yet at Milky Way's Black Hole Live Science - September 3, 2008

Milky Way's Halo Loaded with Star Streams Live Science - August 16, 2008

Stellar nursery found near Milky Way's violent heart New Scientist - July 24, 2008

The Exploding Star in the Milky Way That Everyone Missed Space.com - July 22, 2008

New Milky Way Map Created; Shows Two Fewer Main Arms National Geographic - June 3, 2008

Milky Way loses two arms MSNBC - June 4, 2008
Black Holes Key to Spiral Arm Hugs Live Science - June 3, 2008

Milky Way's Giant Black Hole 'Awoke From Slumber' 300 Years Ago Science Daily - April 17, 2008

Two Supernova Factories Found In The Milky Way Science Daily - April 2, 2008

Galaxy Evolution Seen in Action BBC - April 1, 2008

Galaxy without dark matter puzzles astronomers New Scientist - February 7, 2008

"Fossil Galaxy" Spotted by Hubble National Geographic - February 7, 2008

Cosmic Finger Taps Our Galaxy's Shoulder Space.com - February 5, 2008

Building Blocks of Life Detected in Distant Galaxy National Geographic - February 5, 2008

Milky Way's antimatter linked to exotic black holes New Scientist - January 22, 2008

Milky Way Has Mysterious Lopsided Cloud Of Antimatter: Clue To Origin Of Antimatter Science Daily - January 15, 2008

Perfectly Aligned Galaxies Found For the First Time - Double Einstein Ring National Geographic - January 12, 2008

Astronomers have found three galaxies in a never before seen perfect alignment a discovery that may help scientists better understand the mysterious dark matter and dark energy believed to dominate the universe.The three galaxies are like beads on a string, one directly behind the other.

Ancestors of Milky Way-Type Galaxies Found, Analyzed National Geographic - January 9, 2008

Milky Way 'ancestors' discovered BBC - January 9, 2008

Galaxy's spiral arms point in opposite directions New Scientist - January 9, 2008

Baby Versions of Milky Way Spotted Live Science - January 9, 2008

Galaxy's antimatter may leak from black holes New Scientist - January 10, 2008

Speeding Star to Escape from Milky Way Space.com - November 29, 2007

Phantom galaxy stages celestial fireworks Guardian - November 30, 2007

Discovering Teenage Galaxies Billions Of Light Years Away Science Daily - November 29, 2007

Dwarf Galaxy I Zwicky 18 National Geographic - October 16, 2007

I Zwicky 18 Wikipedia
Spectroscopic observations with ground-based telescopes have shown that I Zwicky 18 is almost exclusively composed of hydrogen and helium, the main ingredients created in the Big Bang.

Small 'Hobbit' Galaxies Made Almost Entirely of Dark Matter Live Science - September 12, 2007

Four Galaxies Collide

Four gigantic galaxies have been seen crashing into one another in one of the biggest cosmic collisions ever seen.
Colossal Four-Galaxy Collision Discovered National Geographic - August 8, 2007
Galaxies clash in four-way merger BBC - August 7, 2007
Four-galaxy collision could form Ÿbergalaxy MSNBC - August 7, 2007
Giant Planets More Common, Star Survey Suggests BBC - August 6, 2007

The Four Suns of HD 98800 NASA - July 30, 2007

Streams of Stars Reveal Cannibal Nature of Milky Way Space.com - May 31, 2007

Stellar streams are thought to form over billions of years as our galaxy?s gravity slowly tears apart globular clusters and even dwarf galaxies. The stars, which were once packed tightly together, are now separated by light-years, trailing one another as they jet at high speeds through the galactic halo.

Why Are Galaxies without Black Holes Uncommon? PhysOrg - May 31, 2007
Recent calculations indicate that when two galaxies, and the supermassive black holes that lie at their centers, merge, these galactic 'marriages' frequently produce gravitational forces strong enough to kick the new combined black hole right out of its merged galaxy. However, so far, none of the many 'empty nest' galaxies predicted by such calculations have been found.

Mystery spiral galaxy arms explained? PhysOrg - April 11, 2007

Chemical composition of stars in clusters can tell history of our galaxy PhysOrg - March 22, 2007

Fundamental Rule Describes All Galaxies Space.com - March 6, 2007

Panorama reveals thousands of growing galaxies New Scientist - March 6, 2007

Galaxy survey focuses on 'pre-teen' years PhysOrg - March 6, 2007

Hubble sees 'Comet Galaxy' being ripped apart by galaxy cluster EurekAlert - March 2, 2007

First X-ray detection of a colliding-wind binary beyond Milky Way PhysOrg - February 16, 2007

New Theory Explains Darkest Galaxies BBC - February 15, 2007

Seven or Eight Dwarf Galaxies Discovered Orbiting the Milky Way PhysOrg - January 9, 2007

Tiny galaxy hosts huge black hole BBC - January 9, 2007
VCC128 is an elliptical dwarf galaxy, about 1% the size of our own Milky Way, located in the Virgo Cluster, which is about 59 million light-years away.

Giant Gas Loops Found in Center of Milky Way, National Geographic- October 4, 2006
Giantic magnetic loops of gas have been discovered arching out of the heart of our galaxy, mimicking loops of plasma sometimes seen on the sun, only a trillion times bigger.
New Planet "Bonanza" Discovered at Center of Milky Way National Geographic - October 5, 2006

Earliest Galaxies in the Universe Spied by Astronomers National Geographic - September 16, 2006

The Milky Way over Utah NASA - June 6, 2006

Most Milky Way Stars Are Single PhysOrg - January 30, 2006

Smallest Earth-like planet found BBC - January 25, 2006

Scientists find extrasolar planet most like our own MSNBC - January 25, 2006
Microlensing detects faraway world just 5.5 times bigger than our own

Man-Made "Star" Illuminates Milky Way's Mysterious Center Scientific American - December 23, 2005

The bar is embedded in the center of the galaxy's spiral arms Space.com August 17, 2005
and cuts across the heart of it all where a supermassive black hole resides

Gemini Uncovers 'Lost City' Of Stars PhysOrg - August 17, 2005
Like archaeologists unearthing a 'lost city', astronomers using the 8-meter Gemini South telescope have revealed that the galaxy NGC 300 has a large, faint extended disk made of ancient stars, enlarging the known diameter of the galaxy by a factor of two or more.

High Energy Milky Way Reveals 'Dark Accelerators' Science Daily - May 31, 2005

Cosmic particle accelerator seen BBC - April 2005
Astronomers have discovered a loop-like structure some 20 light-years across close to the center of the Milky Way

Galactic pancake mystery solved BBC - April 2005
Astronomers have figured out why a series of small galaxies surrounding the Milky Way are distributed around it in the shape of a pancake

New Sources of High-Energy Gamma Rays Discovered at Galaxy's Center Scientific American - April 2005

Astronomers Map Chaotic Galaxy's Magnetic Field Scientific American - March 2005

Radio Waves Detected Coming From Center of Galaxy National Geographic - March 2005

Astronomers find star-less galaxy BBC - February 2005

Astronomers say they have discovered an object that appears to be an invisible galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter

Astronomers Spy Galaxy's Strongest Explosion Yet Scientific American - February 2005

Huge 'star-quake' rocks Milky Way BBC - February 2005

See-through Galaxy: Revealing The Milky Way's Center Science Daily - January 2003

The center of our galaxy is hidden behind a "brick wall" of obscuring dust so thick that not even the Hubble Space Telescope can penetrate it.

Astronomers witness huge galactic collision MSNBC

Stars reveal the Milky Way's age BBC - August 2004

estimated by astronomers as being about 13,600 million years old

Chandra captures galaxy cluster forming BBC - August 2004

Hubble sights Milky Way's 'twin' BBC - August 2004

NGC 3949 is a large spiral galaxy and, in astronomical terms at least, is relatively nearby at around 50 million light-years away from Earth.

Hubble discovers 100 new planets orbiting stars in our galaxy in galactic bulge BBC - July 2004

If confirmed it would almost double the number of planets known to be circling other stars to about 230. The discovery will lend support to the idea that almost everysunlike star in our galaxy, and probably the Universe, is accompanied by planets.

Milky Way X-ray Mystery Deepens Scientific American - July 2004

What is the glow in the center of our galaxy?

Origin Of Enigmatic Galactic-center Filaments Revealed Science Daily - June 2004

Distant galaxies line-up in space BBC - February 2004

Astronomers are puzzled by an image of a distant cluster of galaxies in which they are lined up like a string that is stretched across the Universe.

Hubble sees 'most distant object' BBC - February 2004

The farthest object in the Universe yet detected has been seen by scientists using the Hubble and Keck telescopes. It is so distant its light must have set out when the Universe was just 750m years old to reach the Earth now.