Tag Archive for 'Galaxy'

This image shows the complex distribution of molecular gas in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Longmore et al. / Minniti et al.

ALMA Produces Largest and Most Detailed Image Ever Taken of Milky Way’s Center

Feb 25, 2026 by News Staff

With the record-setting image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have mapped the molecular heart of our Milky Way...

This Webb image shows NGC 5134, a spiral galaxy some 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / A. Leroy.

Webb Focuses on Spiraling Star Factory: NGC 5134

Feb 24, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have produced a spectacular infrared image of the spiral galaxy NGC 5134. This Webb image...

This Webb image shows the jellyfish galaxy COSMOS2020-635829; the dashed circles mark the four extraplanar sources that are identified in the tail of the galaxy. Image credit: Roberts et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae3824.

Webb Discovers Most Distant Jellyfish Galaxy Ever Seen

Feb 18, 2026 by News Staff

New observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveal a galaxy with sweeping gaseous ‘tentacles’ in a galaxy cluster at redshift...

CDG-2 (dashed red circle) is dominated by dark matter and contains only a sparse scattering of stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Dayi Li, UToronto / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Evidence Found for Dark Galaxy in Perseus Cluster

Feb 18, 2026 by News Staff

The new dark galaxy candidate is dominated by dark matter and nearly devoid of light. Named Candidate Dark Galaxy-2 (CDG-2), the object consists of four...

Hydrocarbons play a key role in shaping the chemistry of the interstellar medium, but their enrichment and relation with carbonaceous grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons still lack clear observational constraints. García-Bernete et al. report on the Webb infrared observations of the local ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) IRAS 07251-0248, which revealed the extragalactic detection of small gas-phase hydrocarbons. Image credit: García-Bernete et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-025-02750-0.

Webb Detects Unexpected Richness of Hydrocarbons in Obscured Core of Nearby Ultra-Luminous Galaxy

Feb 8, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered an unprecedented richness of small gas-phase hydrocarbons — such as...

A compact object made of self-gravitating fermionic dark matter. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Milky Way’s ‘Central Black Hole’ is Compact Object Composed of Fermionic Dark Matter, Study Says

Feb 5, 2026 by News Staff

For decades, the motions of stars near the center of our Milky Way Galaxy have been treated as some of the clearest evidence for a supermassive black hole....

This Webb/NIRCam image shows a cosmic jet in Messier 87. Image credit: Jan Röder / Maciek Wielgus / Joseph B. Jensen / Gagandeep S. Anand / R. Brent Tully.

Event Horizon Telescope Pinpoints Possible Origin of Messier 87’s Black Hole Jet

Feb 2, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes — have identified the likely starting...

This Hubble image shows NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy some 187 million light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R.J. Foley, UC Santa Cruz / Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Mehmet Yüksek.

Hubble Space Telescope Spies Beautiful Lenticular Galaxy: NGC 7722

Feb 2, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a new photo of the lenticular galaxy NGC 7722. This Hubble image shows NGC 7722, a...

This Webb image shows the galaxy MoM-z14 as it appeared in the distant past, only 280 million years after the Big Bang. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Rohan Naidu, MIT / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Webb Discovers Most Distant Galaxy Yet: MoM-z14

Jan 29, 2026 by News Staff

MoM-z14 existed just 280 million years after the Big Bang, according a team of astronomers led by Dr. Rohan Naidu from the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics...

Containing nearly 800,000 galaxies, this Webb image is overlaid with a map of dark matter, represented in blue. Image credit: NASA / STScI / J. DePasquale / A. Pagan.

Webb Creates Most Detailed Dark-Matter Map Yet

Jan 27, 2026 by News Staff

Using ultra-sharp imaging from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have produced an extremely detailed, wide-area map of mass in the...

This Webb image shows the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / C. Willott, National Research Council Canada / R. Tripodi, INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Rome.

Webb Sees Lensing Galaxy Cluster in Leo

Jan 26, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of Webb astronomers has released an absolutely beautiful image taken by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope of MACS J1149.5+2223 (MACS J1149...

The Hubble image shows the Circinus Galaxy, a spiral galaxy about 13 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Circinus; a close-up of its core from Webb shows the inner face of the hole of the donut-shaped disk of gas disk glowing in infrared light; the outer ring appears as dark spots. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Hubble / Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez, University of South Carolina / Deepashri Thatte, STScI / Alyssa Pagan, STScI / NSF’s NOIRLab / CTIO.

Webb Peers into Heart of Circinus Galaxy

Jan 13, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have captured the most detailed infrared view yet into the center of the Circinus Galaxy, one of...

COSMOS-74706: an unsharp mask overlaid onto the F200W, F277W, and F356W filter composition; the white lines are logarithmic spirals fitted to points along the arm structures and a line segment fitted to the approximately North to South aligned bar structure. Image credit: Daniel Ivanov.

Barred Spiral Galaxy Spotted Just Two Billion Years after Big Bang

Jan 13, 2026 by News Staff

Using the high resolution images from the NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) instrument onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have...

An artist’s impression of the forming galaxy cluster SPT2349-56: radio jets from active galaxies embedded in a hot intracluster atmosphere (red), illustrating a large thermal reservoir of gas in the nascent cluster. Image credit: Lingxiao Yuan.

ALMA Detects Superheated Intracluster Gas in Distant Galaxy Protocluster

Jan 8, 2026 by News Staff

New observations of the young cluster SPT2349-56 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed unexpectedly scorching intracluster...

$The Champagne Cluster appears here as a large collection of brilliant white lights, each a distinct galaxy. A neon purple cloud stretches across the cluster’s crowded core. Many of the hundred-plus galaxies in the cluster are in two clumps of galaxies towards the top and bottom of center. Some are encircled by a faint glowing haze, while a few foreground stars gleam with diffraction spikes. Some of the smaller galaxies are tinted blue, orange, or red, and some appear more oblong than round, suggesting spiral shapes viewed edge-on. The neon purple cloud sits at the heart of the image, surrounding the most densely-packed part of the cluster. This cloud, which spreads vertically across the cluster, is multimillion-degree gas observed by Chandra. The two clumps of observable galaxies, and the spread of superheated gas, reveal that the Champagne Cluster is in fact two clusters in the process of colliding. Image credit: NASA / CXC / UCDavis / Bouhrik et al. / Legacy Survey / DECaLS / BASS / MzLS / SAO / P. Edmonds / L. Frattare.$