galaxies

Latest about galaxies

Man sits on top of Demerdzhi mountain under the Milky Way at night in Alushta, Crimea.

What is the Milky Way?

By Paul Sutter published

Find out all the science of the Milky Way, including the size of our home galaxy, who discovered it and how it's on a collision course with another galaxy.

Cosmology
This animation shows the distribution of the dark matter, obtained from a numerical simulation, at a redshift z~2, or when the Universe was about 3 billion years old.

Dark matter map reveals new filaments connecting galaxies

By Stephanie Pappas published

A new map of the local universe created with machine learning reveals filaments of dark matter connecting galaxies.

Dark Matter
An image of an ORC, by Bärbel Koribalski, based on ASKAP data, with the optical image from the [Dark Energy Survey](https://www.darkenergysurvey.org)

Astronomers keep finding mysterious circular rings in the sky and don't know how to explain them

By Adam Mann published

Mysterious circular objects in the distant universe are challenging for astronomers to explain.

Astronomy
A supermassive black hole partially consumes an orbiting giant star. In this illustration, the gas pulled from the star collides with the black hole's debris disk and causes a flare.

Monster black hole spews energy as regularly as Yellowstone's 'Old Faithful'

By Mindy Weisberger published

Regular energy flares that emerge from galaxy ESO 253-3 are produced by a black hole about 20 times larger than the one at the center of the Milky Way.

Black Holes
This computer simulation shows supermassive black holes only 40 orbits from merging.

10 huge black hole findings from 2020

By Adam Mann published

Here, we take a look at some of the most spectacular black hole findings of 2020.

Black Holes
The galaxy GN-z11, which scientists think could be the farthest and oldest galaxy every observed, superimposed on an image from the COODS-North survey.

Scientists think they've spotted the farthest galaxy in the universe

By Chelsea Gohd published

Astronomers have peered out into the vast expanse and spotted what they think is the farthest (and oldest) galaxy ever observed.

Cosmology
The ASKAP radio telescope array, located in the Australian outback, just mapped 3 million galaxies in less than a month.

Scientists just mapped 1 million new galaxies, in 300 hours

By Brandon Specktor published

Australian scientists tested all 36 receivers on the ASKAP radio telescope for the first time ever, mapping 85% of the sky in 300 hours.

Cosmology
Hubble's snapshot of an early-stage collision between two galaxies looks remarkably like a giant jack-o-lantern in the sky.

Hubble telescope spots a 'Greater Pumpkin' in space for Halloween

By Kasandra Brabaw published

As families tuck into their couches to watch Charlie Brown's quest for the great pumpkin this Halloween, they may be surprised to hear that NASA has already discovered a "greater pumpkin."

Space Exploration
An artist's impression of the Wolfe Disk, a massive disk galaxy in the early universe.

Why are galaxies different shapes?

By Donavyn Coffey published

Some galaxies are swirling blue disks, others are red spheres or misshapen, clumpy messes or something in between. Why the different configurations?

Cosmology
Something caused a giant black hole's bright corona to wink out. Researchers suspect it may have been a collision with a star, illustrated here.

Mysterious force destroys monster black hole's ring of plasma

By Rafi Letzter published

Telescopes all over the world watched a bright flash light up space around a distant, supermassive black hole. And then, within hours, it was gone.

Black Holes
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