Tag Archive for 'Milky Way'

A schematic view of the history of the accretion disk and the flyby object: the three plots starting from the bottom left are snapshots from the numerical simulation, capturing the system right at the flyby event, 4,000 years after, and 8,000 years after, respectively; the top right image is from the ALMA observations, showing the disk with spirals and the two objects around it, corresponding to the system at 12,000 years after the flyby event. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-022-01681-4.

ALMA Images Spiral Protostellar Disk near Milky Way’s Center

Jun 21, 2022 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have discovered a massive accretion disk with two spiral arms around a 32-solar-mass...

The interstellar dust map made with Gaia’s data release 3. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC.

ESA’s Gaia Mission Releases Its Third Full Dataset

Jun 14, 2022 by News Staff

Gaia’s data release 3 (DR3) contains new and improved details for almost 2 billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy as well as for a subset of solar system...

The star-filled sky in this Hubble photo lies in the direction of the Galactic center. The light from stars is monitored to see if any change in their apparent brightness is caused by a foreground object drifting in front of them. The warping of space by the interloper would momentarily brighten the appearance of a background star, an effect called gravitational lensing. One such event, OB110462, is shown in the four close-up frames at the bottom. The arrow points to a star that momentarily brightened, as first captured by Hubble in August 2011. This was caused by a foreground black hole drifting in front of the star, along our line of sight. The star brightened and then subsequently faded back to its normal brightness as the black hole passed by. Because a black hole doesn’t emit or reflect light, it cannot be directly observed. But its unique thumbprint on the fabric of space can be measured through these so-called microlensing events. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / K. Sahu, STScI / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble Detects Free-Floating Compact Object 5,000 Light-Years Away

Jun 13, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have for the first time discovered what may be an isolated stellar-mass black hole using the astrometric microlensing technique. They estimate...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster Terzan 9, a relic of a generation of long-lived stars that formed in the early Galaxy. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Three filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Cohen.

Hubble Spots Ancient Star Cluster near Milky Way’s Center

Jun 13, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is one of the best ever views of Terzan 9, one of the most central globular clusters in our Milky...

This image of the Carina Nebula reveals the dynamic cloud of interstellar matter and thinly spread gas and dust as never before; the massive stars in the interior of this cosmic bubble emit intense radiation that causes the surrounding gas to glow; by contrast, other regions of the nebula contain dark pillars of dust cloaking newborn stars. Image credit: ESO / J. Emerson / M. Irwin / J. Lewis.

Astronomers Discover 116,027 New Variable Stars

Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

Using machine learning techniques and data from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) and several other surveys, astronomers have identified...

This Hubble image shows Liller 1, a globular cluster some 30,000 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / F. Ferraro.

Hubble Observes Extremely Distant Globular Cluster

May 23, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of the globular cluster Liller 1. This Hubble image shows Liller 1, a globular cluster...

This is the first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

Astronomers Capture First Image of Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

May 12, 2022 by News Staff

The new image produced by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration shows the area close to the event horizon of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the 4.3-million-solar-mass...

Astronomers hope to send a message toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Andriy Sydorenko.

Two Teams of Astronomers Want to Broadcast Earth’s Location for Intelligent Extraterrestrials

May 4, 2022 by The Conversation

For over 70 years, astronomers have been scanning for radio or optical signals from other civilizations in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence...

An artist’s impression of a millisecond pulsar. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Anomalous Gamma-Ray Signal from Milky Way’s Core May Actually Come from Millisecond Pulsars

Apr 28, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers from the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Canterbury and the University of Tokyo have found...

Wylie et al. investigated the metallicity, age, and orbital anatomy of the inner Milky Way, specifically focusing on the outer bar region. This image shows a metallicity map of the inner Milky Way, based on orbital data calculated by Wylie et al. The red star marks the position of the Sun, while the white dashed lines mark different sight lines. The red contours show specific density levels to highlight important features: a bar in the middle with a ring-like structure around it. Image credit: Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik.

Milky Way’s Inner Ring is Nearly 6 Billion Years Old, Astronomers Say

Apr 5, 2022 by News Staff

Our Milky Way Galaxy hosts an inner ring-like structure that is rich in metals (elements heavier than hydrogen and helium) and intermediately aged, according...

The position of J0624-6948 (small object at the center of the purple ring indicated by *) is indicated with respect to the Milky Way’s Galactic plane, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: Axel Mellinger, Central Michigan University.

ASKAP Finds Rogue Supernova Remnant near Large Magellanic Cloud

Mar 30, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) have spotted a mysterious circular ring between the Milky Way’s plane and...

An artist’s conception of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Milky Way Evolved in Few Different Phases, New Research Suggests

Mar 23, 2022 by News Staff

The formation of our Milky Way Galaxy can be split up qualitatively into different assembly phases that resulted in its structurally different stellar...

An artist’s impression of HD 213885b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

NASA: More Than 5,000 Exoplanets are Now Confirmed to Exist in Our Galaxy

Mar 23, 2022 by News Staff

According to NASA astronomers, the 5,000-plus exoplanets confirmed so far include small, rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants many times larger than Jupiter,...

PSR J2030+4415 generated an extremely long beam of matter and antimatter. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Stanford University / M. de Vries / NSF / AURA / Gemini Consortium.

Chandra Spots Huge Filament of Matter and Antimatter from Gamma-Ray Pulsar

Mar 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have observed a remarkable X-ray filament generated by the gamma-ray pulsar PSR J2030+4415. PSR J2030+4415...

A visualization of the eRosita and Fermi bubbles. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Giant Bubbles Above and Below Milky Way’s Center Caused by Galaxy’s Central Black Hole

Mar 11, 2022 by News Staff

In 2020, the X-ray satellite eROSITA revealed two gigantic bubbles extending to 80° above and below the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The morphology...

Noise variations in the two regions covered by the second data release from the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey with the coverage of the 841 individual pointing outlined. The RA-13 (top) and RA-1 (bottom) regions span 4,178 and 1,457 square degrees and have median rms values of 74 μJy beam−1 and 106 μJy beam−1 respectively. Failed facets (white regions) are generally caused by either poor ionospheric conditions or dynamic range issues around bright sources such as 3C 48 and 3C 196. Image credit: Shimwell et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202142484.

LOFAR Radio Telescope Maps More Than Quarter of Northern Sky

Feb 28, 2022 by News Staff

In the second data release from the ongoing LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey, astronomers present radio images covering 27% of the northern...

Four possible domains of planetary intelligence: (a) on a planet with an immature biosphere (such as the Earth during the Archean Eon) there are insufficient feedback loops between life and geophysical coupled systems to exert strong co-evolution; (b) on a planet with a mature biosphere (such as Earth after the Proterozoic) the biosphere exerts strong forcing on the geophysical state establishing full co-evolution of the entire system; this feedback may provide some degree of long-term stabilizing (i.e. Gaian) modulations for the full system; (c) on a planet with an immature technosphere (represented by the current Anthropocene Earth) feedbacks from technological activity produce strong enough forcing on the coupled planetary system to drive it into new dynamical states; these forcings however are unconstrained by intention relative to the health of the civilization producing the technology; (d) on a planet with a mature technosphere, feedback loops between technological activity and biogeochemical and biogeophysical states have been intentionally modified to ensure maximum stability and productivity of the full system; alongside each planetary image, we show a schematic atmospheric spectrum; an immature biosphere would show an atmosphere mostly in equilibrium dominated perhaps by carbon dioxide (CO2); in a mature biosphere life would have changed atmospheric chemistry leading to a highly non-equilibrium state such as perhaps high concentrations of oxygen (O2); in an immature technosphere new ‘pollutant’ species appear, such as CFCs, while industrial activities such as combustion may alter the abundance of other pre-existing gases like CO2 and methane; in a mature technosphere all atmospheric constituents may have their concentrations modified to produce long-term stable and productive states for the full (civilization + biosphere) system; this is represented via a range of possible peaks for different constituents. Image credit: Frank et al., doi: 10.1017/S147355042100029X.

Can Planets Be Intelligent?

Feb 22, 2022 by News Staff

Conventionally, intelligence is seen as a property of individuals. However, it is also known to be a property of collectives. Examples include collective-decision-making...

An artist’s impression of a dwarf galaxy. Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Astronomers Use Distributed Supercomputer to Reconstruct Ancient Dwarf Galaxy

Feb 18, 2022 by News Staff

Using the 1.5 PetaFLOPS MilkyWay@home distributed supercomputer, astronomers have calculated the original mass and size of a dwarf galaxy that was shredded...

This image shows the Milky Way Galaxy as seen by ESA’s Gaia spacecraft; the squares represent the location of globular clusters, the triangles the location of satellite galaxies, and the small dots are stellar streams; the dots and squares in purple are objects brought into the Milky Way by the Pontus merging galaxy. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Gaia Discovers New Fossil Galaxy Hidden in Milky Way’s Halo

Feb 17, 2022 by News Staff

Using data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, astronomers have looked for the remains of ancient dwarf galaxies in the Milky Way’s halo, which surrounds the...

An image of the spectral index of radio-emitting filaments in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Yusef-Zadeh et al., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac4802.

New MeerKAT Image Reveals Radio-Emitting Filaments in Milky Way’s Center

Feb 3, 2022 by News Staff

The new image from the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) in Cape Town, South Africa, shows nearly 1,000 magnetized...

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