Tag Archive for 'Galaxy'

Little red dots may reside in small galaxies with total masses equivalent to around one billion times that of the Sun. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-026-02945-z.

Mysterious ‘Little Red Dots’ Could Be Tiny Galaxies with Giant Black Holes at Their Hearts

Aug 25, 2026 by News Staff

The mysterious objects spotted in the early Universe may not be isolated points of light after all. A new analysis of images of 217 ‘little red dots’...

This sequence of images, taken with the GRAVITY instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, show several stars orbiting Sagittarius A*. One of these stars, known as S301, was recently found to pass much closer to the black hole than any other known star. Image credit: ESO / GRAVITY Collaboration.

Newly-Discovered Star Could Finally Reveal Spin of Our Galaxy’s Central Black Hole

Aug 19, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have spotted a faint, previously unknown star whipping around Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, on the tightest and...

About 11.8 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy known as LKH merged with the early Milky Way. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Milky Way Swallowed Dwarf Galaxy Nearly 11.8 Billion Years Ago

Aug 18, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found definitive evidence that the young Milky Way swallowed a dwarf galaxy just two billion...

Mid-infrared image of the IRS 3 environment, observed with VLT/NACO and Webb/MIRI/MRS. Image credit: Peißker et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202660243.

Water and Dust Found Surviving near Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Aug 14, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found that IRS 3 — a bloated giant star orbiting just 0.55 light-years to...

Mishra et al. suggest that AGN dust tori host the largest populations of planets in the Universe. Image credit: ESO.

Dusty Accretion Disks around Supermassive Black Holes May Be Secret Planet Factories

Aug 13, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers from New Mexico State University, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center and CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College propose that the...

This Webb image shows the MoM-BH*-1 object. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Naidu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10846-4.

Astronomers Find Black Hole Star in Early Universe

Aug 12, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Roughly 660 million years after the Big Bang, a strange bright red spot has been hiding in plain sight in one of the deepest fields ever imaged by the...

This image shows the Copeland Septet, a group of galaxies located in the constellation of Leo. Image credit: DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys / LBNL / DOE / KPNO / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA.

5.6-Trillion-Pixel Map of Universe is Biggest Ever Made

Aug 11, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers have released the largest-ever 2D map of our Universe, charting nearly 4 billion stars, galaxies and other objects across roughly 75% of the...

TDE 2025abcr. Image credit: Stein et al., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae77f3.

Astronomers Spot Wandering Supermassive Black Hole Far From Its Galaxy’s Heart

Jul 29, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered a dormant supermassive black hole 30,000 light-years from the center of WISEA J014656.04-152214.7 — a massive galaxy...

This Hubble image shows NGC 4654, an intermediate spiral galaxy some 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.

Hubble Spots Spiral Galaxy Warped by Cosmic Forces

Jul 27, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A stunning new image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the lopsided intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 4654, whose unusual shape was sculpted...

Using supercomputer simulations of galaxies like the Milky Way, Batrakov et al. found that galaxies with slowly rotating stellar haloes are more likely to have experienced a major ‘disk flip,’ where our Galaxy’s disk changed its orientation by more than 90 degrees. Image credit: Batrakov et al.

Our Milky Way Galaxy Likely Underwent Disk Flip after Ancient Galactic Collision: Study

Jul 22, 2026 by News Staff

A head-on collision with another galaxy billions of years ago may have dramatically reoriented the Milky Way’s disk, according to new supercomputer simulations...

This Hubble image shows the elliptical galaxy NGC 4696. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Fabian.

Webb Catches Supermassive Black Hole Feeding from Cosmic Gas Streams

Jul 14, 2026 by News Staff

New images of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4696 from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveal gas filaments funneling material into a spinning...

This collage shows 15 of the 31 newly discovered quasars by ESA’s Euclid space telescope. EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3 are visible on the first row, the first and second from the left, respectively. Image credit: ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA / Euclid Science Ground Segment / Antoine Basset, CNES.

Euclid Discovers Earliest Quasars Ever Seen

Jul 8, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESA’s Euclid space telescope have discovered 31 ancient quasars from a time when the Universe was just 670 to 800 million years old....

The ground-based image of Centaurus A from ESO (top left) puts the near-infrared and mid-infrared views from Webb into context. Image credit: ESO / NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / A. Pagan, STScI.

Webb Reveals Hidden Heart of Centaurus A

Jul 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Celebrating four years of science, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has pierced the thick dust of the giant galaxy Centaurus A to reveal its...

This illustration portrays galaxy MXDFz4.4 when it existed 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Leah Hustak, STScI.

Hubble Detects Ultraviolet Light from Tiny Starburst Galaxy in Early Universe

Jul 1, 2026 by News Staff

Just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, MXDFz4.4 — a galaxy 100 times smaller than the Milky Way — was blasting ionizing light through the...

This Webb image shows the edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Adam Smercina, STScI, Tufts / Thomas Williams, University of Manchester / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Webb Maps Millions of Stars in Messier 82

Jun 29, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has resolved roughly 16.5 million stars in the edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82, NGC 3034 or the Cigar...

This photo of the Milky Way Galaxy’s center was taken on March 23, 2025 by ESA’s Euclid space telescope. Image credit: ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA / CFHT / J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin, CEA Paris-Saclay.

Euclid Captures Most Detailed Visible-Light Image Ever Taken of Milky Way’s Core

Jun 26, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

ESA’s Euclid space telescope mapped more than 60 million stars in the Milky Way’s central bulge, producing the largest high-resolution visible-light...

This Webb image shows the little red dot GLIMPSE-17775, which is located behind the galaxy cluster Abell S1063. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Vasily Kokorev, UT Austin / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Webb Delivers Strongest-Ever Case for ‘Black Hole Stars’ Lurking in Early Universe

Jun 15, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

For several years, astronomers have been puzzling over a peculiar population of objects discovered by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope —...

This image shows the evidence for the wind blowing away from Sagittarius A*: the white dot in the center of the image shows the supermassive black hole; in orange is data from ALMA, mapping the location of cold gas composed of carbon monoxide in the image; in blue is X-ray data from Chandra; a large cone-shaped cavity, visible as an absence of cold gas in the ALMA data, is filled by hot X-ray-emitting gas in the Chandra data. Image credit: NASA / CXC / UMass / Wang et al. / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Longmore et al. / Minniti et al.

Astronomers Finally Find Milky Way’s Missing Black Hole Wind

Jun 8, 2026 by News Staff

After a 50-year search, astronomers have uncovered evidence that Sagittarius A* — the 4.3-million-solar-mass black hole that resides at the center...

This Webb image shows the highly distorted red galaxy MRG-M0138 seen through a foreground cluster of galaxies (white sources). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb.

Webb Weighs Most Distant Inactive Black Hole Ever Found

Jun 5, 2026 by News Staff

A supermassive black hole 6 billion times the mass of the Sun lurks in MRG-M0138, a gravitationally lensed quiescent galaxy seen when the Universe was...

This image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the spiral galaxy Messier 88. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker / MAUVE-HST Team.

Hubble Captures Active Spiral Galaxy: Messier 88

Jun 1, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A newly-released Hubble image shows Messier 88, a black hole-powered spiral galaxy that is gradually plunging toward the crowded heart of the Virgo Cluster. This...

‹12 3 ›»