Tag Archive for 'Milky Way'

This wide-field image shows the patch of sky around the distant quasar PKS 1939-315 (green cross). Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD.

Strangely Shaped Plasma Lenses May Lurk in Milky Way’s Interstellar Medium

Jan 21, 2016 by News Staff

According to a team of astronomers led by Dr. Keith Bannister of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science Division, invisible noodle- or hazelnut-shaped plasma...

Artist’s impression of the clouds scattered by an intermediate mass black hole. Image credit: Tomoharu Oka / Keio University.

Japanese Astronomers Detect Signs of Milky Way’s Second-Largest Black Hole

Jan 19, 2016 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Japan, led by Keio University scientist Prof. Tomoharu Oka, has detected signs of an intermediate-mass black hole in the central...

This image from Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 shows the heavily obscured globular cluster Terzan 1. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Terzan 1: Hubble Snaps Breathtaking Picture of Globular Cluster

Dec 14, 2015 by Natali Anderson

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the globular cluster Terzan 1. This image from Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary...

Our Solar System is located at the center of the circle on this artist’s impression of the Milky Way Galaxy. The insert shows one view from the 3D visualization tool developed by the astronomers. Image credit: ESA / H. Bouy, CSIC-INTA / J. Alves, University of Vienna.

ESA’s Hipparcos Satellite Sheds New Light on Solar Neighborhood

Nov 16, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from ESA’s Hipparcos space astrometry mission have produced a 3D visualization of all of O and B type stars within 1,630 light...

Chemical makeup of the oldest stars in the Milky Way points to huge explosions called hypernovae. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Find 13 Billion Year Old Stars at Milky Way’s Center

Nov 12, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered the oldest stars ever seen, dating from before the Milky Way Galaxy formed, when the Universe was just...

Left: a ground-based view of the Milky Way’s central bulge; giant dust clouds block most of the starlight coming from the galactic center. The Hubble Space Telescope, however, peered through a region (marked by the arrow) called the Sagittarius Window, which offers a keyhole view into the galaxy’s hub. Upper right: this is a small section of Hubble’s view of the dense collection of stars crammed together in the galactic bulge. Lower right: a sample of 4 out of the 70 brightest white dwarfs spied by Hubble in the Milky Way Galaxy’s central bulge. The numbers in the inset images correspond to the stars’ location in the larger Hubble view. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Calamida & K. Sahu, STScI / SWEEPS Science Team / A. Fujii.

Hubble Finds Ancient White Dwarfs in Milky Way’s Central Bulge

Nov 10, 2015 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered for the first time a population of ancient white dwarf stars embedded in the Milky...

This diagram shows the locations of the newly-discovered Cepheids in an artist’s rendering of our Milky Way Galaxy; the yellow star indicates the position of our Solar System. Image credit: ESO / Microsoft WorldWide Telescope.

Astronomers Discover New Component of Milky Way Galaxy

Oct 28, 2015 by News Staff

Using data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey (VVV) ESO Public Survey, astronomers have discovered a previously unknown component of the...

This small section of the Milky Way mosaic shows the star system Eta Carinae. Image credit: Lehrstuhl für Astrophysik / Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Astronomers Create 46 Billion Pixel Mosaic Image of Milky Way

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

The newly-released photographic mosaic of our Galaxy is the largest astronomical image ever created, according to a team of astronomers from Germany and...

The upper two panels of this graphic represent a possible explanation for a recent increase in X-ray flares from Sagittarius A* seen by three X-ray telescopes. As part of a long monitoring campaign, astronomers observed the black hole as a mysterious object called G2 appeared to pass close to the black hole. The timing of G2’s passage could suggest that material from G2 caused the surge in X-ray activity, but it is also possible that this unrelated behavior of Sagittarius A*. The bottom panel is a view of the region around the black hole where red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Sagittarius A* itself is not visible in this image, but is embedded in the white dot at the end of the arrow. Image credit: NASA / CXC / MPE / G.Ponti et al. / M.Weiss.

X-Ray Observations of Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Reveal Unusual Activity

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

A long monitoring campaign of the Milky Way’s black hole, called Sagittarius A*, has revealed some unusual activity. Typically relatively quiet, the...

This image shows the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy, a close neighbor of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Despite their proximity, both galaxies have very distinct histories and characters. This galaxy is much smaller, fainter and older than the Milky Way and appears here as a cloud of faint stars filling most of the image. Many other much more distant galaxies can be seen shining right through the sparse stars of the galaxy. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Capture Stunning Image of Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy

Sep 16, 2015 by News Staff

Using the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, Chile, astronomers have captured a new image of a nearby small...

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...

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