Milky Way
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Milky Way quiz: How well do you know our home galaxy?Quiz Test your knowledge of the Milky Way's size, speed, age, galactic neighbors and more.
By Harry Baker Published
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Supermassive black holes in 'little red dot' galaxies are 1,000 times larger than they should be, and astronomers don't know why"Our measurements imply that the supermassive black hole mass is 10% of the stellar mass in the galaxies we studied."
By Robert Lea Published
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Mysterious 'ice balls' in space baffle astronomersAstronomers have discovered two strange objects that could be young stars — except they're completely surrounded by ice.
By Ben Turner Published
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'Herculean' 2.5-billion-pixel mosaic shows our closest galactic neighbor like never before — and took more than a decade to createThe new composite image, which combines hundreds of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the Andromeda Galaxy with more than 200 million individually resolved stars.
By Harry Baker Published
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James Webb telescope captures 1st 'mid-infrared' flare from Milky Way's supermassive black holeThe James Webb Space Telescope has captured a mid-infrared picture of Sagittarius A*, filling in a long-standing gap in observations..
By Stephanie Pappas Published
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Most of the atoms in your body left the Milky Way on a 'cosmic conveyor belt' long before you were born, new study revealsNew research suggests that most of the atoms within the human body likely spent part of their lives drifting beyond the Milky Way on a cosmic "conveyor belt," before eventually returning to our galaxy.
By Harry Baker Published
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Scientists discover 2 stars dancing around the Milky Way's black hole — and they could point to a type of planet never seen beforeAstronomers have discovered a pair of young stars near the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. Studying them can offer a rare glimpse into how stars can endure — at least briefly — the immense gravity exerted by such cosmic behemoths.
By Sharmila Kuthunur Published
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James Webb telescope spies stunning 'Firefly Sparkle' galaxy — a baby clone of the Milky Way being 'assembled brick by brick' in the early universeThe James Webb Space Telescope has captured an image of a baby, Milky Way-like galaxy that formed more than 13 billion years ago. This "Firefly Sparkle" galaxy could reveal how our own galaxy evolved.
By Harry Baker Published
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Astronomers spot 1 of the most powerful 'sonic booms' in the universe as massive galaxy crashes into its neighborsA shockwave caused by the galaxy NGC 7318b slamming into four other galaxies is akin to a "sonic boom from a jet fighter." Astronomers hope the event will reveal vital secrets about the often-violent evolution of our universe.
By Ben Turner Published
