WASHINGTON—The world’s first image of the chaotic supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy doesn’t portray a voracious cosmic destroyer but what astronomers Thursday called a “gentle giant” on a near-starvation diet. Astronomers believe nearly all galaxies, including our own, have these giant black holes at their bustling and crowded center, […]
A team of astronomers mapping radio waves in the universe has discovered something “kind of spooky” spinning around in space that converts magnetic energy to radio waves much more effectively than anything they’ve ever witnessed before. In a press release on Wednesday, researchers at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) said the strange object […]
From its unique vantage point 4.3 billion miles from Earth, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has captured images of nearby stars—and the stars appear to be in different positions than where we see them from Earth. This is the first time this kind of “parallax effect” has been captured using a spacecraft. You can mimic this […]
Astronomers have spotted a massive disk galaxy, not unlike our own, that formed 12.5 billion years ago when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was only a tenth of its current age. But according to what scientists know about galaxy formation, this one has no business being in the distant universe. This discovery is challenging how astronomers […]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—Astronomers have discovered a titanic wave of star-forming gases practically right under our noses in the Milky Way. Harvard University scientists reported Tuesday that this massive structure has been hiding out in the Milky Way galaxy’s spiral arm closest to Earth. The researchers were building a 3-D map of our galaxy’s interstellar matter, […]
Hundreds of thousands of tourists and locals gaped skyward Tuesday, July 2, to experience a rare and irresistible combination for astronomy buffs, as a total eclipse of the sun darkened the heavens over Chile and Argentina.
Astronomers have found a nearby solar system with seven Earth-sized planets, three of which circle their parent star at the right distance for liquid surface water, raising the prospect of life, research published on Wednesday (February 22) showed. The star, known as TRAPPIST-1, is a small, dim celestial body in the constellation Aquarius. It is […]
