Tag Archive for 'Milky Way'

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and an interstellar filament. Image credit: ESA / Planck Collaboration.

Planck Captures Magellanic Clouds, Interstellar Filament 300 Light-Years Away

Sep 8, 2015 by News Staff

This image portrays the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – two spectacular, naked-eye companion galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy; and a filament...

In this theoretical artist’s conception of our Milky Way Galaxy, green ‘bubbles’ mark areas where alien life has spread beyond its home system to create cosmic oases, a process called panspermia. Image credit: NASA / JPL / R. Hurt.

Astrophysicists: Milky Way Galaxy ‘Infected’ with Pockets of Alien Life

Aug 28, 2015 by News Staff

A fundamental question in astrobiology is: whether life can be transported between extrasolar planets, planetary systems? A team of U.S. astrophysicists...

X-ray view of the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy. This image was put together in a new study by compiling all observations of this region that were performed with ESA’s XMM-Newton, adding up to over one month of monitoring in total. The image combines data collected at energies from 0.5 to 2 keV (shown in red), 2 to 4.5 keV (shown in green) and 4.5 to 12 keV (shown in blue). It spans about 2.5 degrees across, equivalent to about 1,000 light-years. Image credit: ESA / XMM-Newton / G. Ponti et al.

XMM-Newton Snaps Stunning X-ray Portraits of Milky Way’s Central Region

Aug 22, 2015 by News Staff

New images from ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory reveal some of the most intense processes taking place at the hearth of our Milky Way Galaxy. X-ray...

A graphic of one of the highest-energy neutrino events is superimposed on a view of the IceCube Neutrino Observatiory at NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Image credit: IceCube Collaboration.

IceCube Confirms Observation of Astrophysical Muon Neutrinos

Aug 21, 2015 by News Staff

Physicists using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory – a cubic-kilometer-sized detector sunk into the ice sheet at the South Pole – have announced...

This image shows a collisional ring galaxy called the Kathryn’s Wheel. The image measures approximately 4 arcminutes across, and was taken by the Cerro-Tololo InterAmerican Observatory 4-m telescope in Chile. Image credit: Ivan Bojicic / Quentin A. Parker et al.

Kathryn’s Wheel: Astronomers Discover Nearest Collisional Ring Galaxy

Aug 17, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers announced yesterday the discovery of the closest collisional ring galaxy to our Milky Way. This image shows a collisional...

This image shows how stellar orbits in the Milky Way Galaxy can change. It shows two pairs of stars, marked as red and blue, in which each pair started in the same orbit, and then one star in the pair changed orbits. The star marked as red has completed its move into a new orbit, while the star marked in blue is still moving. Image credit: Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital, Inc. / SDSS collaboration.

New Map of Milky Way Galaxy Reveals Stars Migrate Far from Birthplaces

Aug 4, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III (SDSS) has produced a new map of our home Milky Way Galaxy and determined that...

This artist’s concept depicts a proposed helium-atmosphere planet called Gliese 436b. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Helium-Rich Gas Giants May Be Common in Milky Way Galaxy

Jun 12, 2015 by News Staff

Gaseous planets with helium-rich atmospheres may be common in our Galaxy, according to a new study accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal...

This image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy PGC 18431. Image credit: ESA /Hubble / NASA.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Dwarf Galaxy PGC 18431

Jun 8, 2015 by News Staff

The Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken an image of the dwarf irregular galaxy PGC 18431. This image shows the...

This image of the Arches Cluster of young, massive stars was obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Hubble Zooms in on Arches Cluster

May 25, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a new image of the Arches Cluster, the densest known cluster...

This illustration reveals a vast disk of gas surrounding the Wolf-Rayet star Nasty 1, shown at center. A close companion star is pulling gas from the star, shown by the bridge of bright material connecting the two stars. This act of celestial cannibalism exposes the massive star’s hot, helium core. Some of the material, however, is escaping into space, forming the huge disk. This disk structure has never been seen before around a Wolf-Rayet star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Nasty 1: Hubble Uncovers Surprising New Clues about Unique Wolf-Rayet Star

May 22, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Wide Field Camera 3 on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a pancake-shaped disk of gas around an extremely bright star...

This diagram shows how scientists determined the size of the halo of the Andromeda Galaxy. Because the gas in the halo is dark, astronomers measured it by using the light from distant quasars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI / N. Lehner & J.C. Howk, University of Notre Dame / B. Wakker, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

NASA’s Hubble Sees Huge Gaseous Halo around Andromeda Galaxy

May 8, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that a nearly invisible halo of hot plasma...

AKARI view of the central regions of Cygnus. Image credit: JAXA.

AKARI Space Observatory Focuses on Cygnus

May 7, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s AKARI Space Observatory have captured a stunning image of the central regions of the Cygnus constellation. AKARI...

A slice through the map of nearby galaxy superclusters; the map spans nearly 2 billion light years from side to side. Regions with many galaxies are shown in white or red, whereas regions with fewer galaxies are dark blue. Image credit: University of Waterloo, adapted by Sci-News.com.

Scientists Create 3D Map of Nearby Galaxy Superclusters

Apr 28, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Canada and France has produced a three-dimensional density map of galaxies that spans approximately 2 billion light-years. A...

This illustration depicts a view of the night sky from a hypothetical planet within the young Milky Way Galaxy 10 billion years ago; glowing pink clouds of hydrogen gas harbor countless newborn stars, and the bluish-white hue of young star clusters litter the landscape; the star-birth rate is 30 times higher than it is in our Galaxy today; our Sun, however, is not among these fledgling stars; the Sun will not be born for another 5 billion years. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levay, STScI.

Astronomers Trace Evolution of Milky Way-Like Galaxies

Apr 10, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that Milky Way-like galaxies underwent a stellar ‘baby boom’ in their early history, creating stars...

This composite image shows the motion of the dusty cloud G2 as it closes in, and then passes, Sagittarius A* - the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole. Image credit: A. Eckart / ESO.

G2: Astronomers Observe Mysterious Dusty Cloud at Milky Way’s Center

Mar 29, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers headed by Dr Andreas Eckart from the University of Cologne, Germany, has made the best observations so far of a dusty red object...

This image shows the Sculptor dwarf galaxy. Image credit: ESO / Digitized Sky Survey 2.

Astronomers Discover Two Extremely Old Stars in Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy

Mar 25, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers led by Dr Joshua Simon from the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has discovered two stars in the Sculptor...

This is a composite, false-color image of the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East. Image credit: R. M. Lau et al.

Supernova Dust Factory Found at Milky Way’s Galactic Center

Mar 20, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the world’s largest airborne astronomical observatory, have...

A rippled Milky Way Galaxy may be 50 percent larger than previously estimated. Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Our Milky Way Galaxy May Be Larger Than Thought

Mar 11, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Yan Xu of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, our Galaxy is at least 50 percent larger than is commonly estimated. A...

This image shows the newly-discovered dwarf galaxy Reticulum 2. Image credit: Sergey E. Koposov et al / Dark Energy Survey.

Reticulum 2: Gamma Rays from Dwarf Galaxy May Be Clue on Mysterious Dark Matter

Mar 11, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers, led by Dr Alex Geringer-Sameth of Carnegie Mellon University, has detected gamma rays emanating from the recently discovered dwarf...

This image shows the newly-discovered dwarf galaxy Eridanus 2. Image credit: Sergey E. Koposov et al / Dark Energy Survey.

Astronomers Discover Nine New Satellites of Milky Way Galaxy

Mar 10, 2015 by News Staff

Using the data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), astronomers have found nine new ultra-faint Milky Way satellites. Based on the morphological properties,...

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