Celebrating 5 years of the Very Large Telescope
From Sombreros to the Centre of the Milky Way Celebrating 5 years of the Very Large Telescope One of the world's most advanced telescope facilities, Very Large Telescope (VLT), situated in the Atacama Desert in Chile, celebrates its 5th birthday today (1st April 2004). During its short history the telescope has captured some breathtaking images... view more... (2004-03-31)
Durham team discover a cosmic flow of galaxies across one billion light years of the universe
They have discovered that the distribution of dark matter is far less smooth than has been predicted by theorists, and that the Milky Way is among a flow of galaxies moving together in the direction of the constellation Vela in the southern hemisphere. view more (1999-01-29)
Rogue Black Holes May Roam the Milky Way
It sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie: rogue black holes roaming our galaxy, threatening to swallow anything that gets too close. In fact, new calculations by Ryan O'Leary and Avi Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) suggest that hundreds of massive black holes, left over from the galaxy-building days of the early universe, may... view more... (2009-04-30)
New vista of Milky Way center unveiled
A dramatic new vista of the center of the Milky Way galaxy from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory exposes new levels of the complexity and intrigue in the Galactic center. view more (2009-09-23)
Surprising telescope observations shake up galactic formation theories
A heavy form of hydrogen created just moments after the Big Bang has been found to exist in larger quantities than expected in the Milky Way, a finding that could radically alter theories about star and galaxy formation, says a new international study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. view more (2006-08-15)
NASA's Chandra sees brightest supernova ever
The brightest stellar explosion ever recorded may be a long-sought new type of supernova, according to observations by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes. view more (2007-05-08)
UCI scientists discover minimum mass for galaxies
By analyzing light from small, faint galaxies that orbit the Milky Way, UC Irvine scientists believe they have discovered the minimum mass for galaxies in the universe - 10 million times the mass of the sun. view more (2008-08-28)
Massive star cluster found in Milky Way
A massive cluster of red supergiants-super-sized stars on the verge of exploding-was recently discovered in the Milky Way by a group of stronomers using infrared technology to penetrate the thick dust that cloaks much of the galaxy. view more (2006-01-10)
Living Fossils Hold Record of 'Supermassive' Kick
The tight cluster of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole after it has been violently kicked out of a galaxy represents a new kind of astronomical object and a fossil record of the kick. view more (2009-07-10)
Hubble finds ring of dark matter
Astronomers have long suspected the existence of the invisible substance of dark matter as the source of additional gravity that holds together galaxy clusters. view more (2007-05-16)
Massive Black Hole Smashes Record
Using two NASA satellites, astronomers have discovered the heftiest known black hole to orbit a star. The new black hole, with a mass 24 to 33 times that of our Sun, is more massive than scientists expected for a black hole that formed from a dying star. view more (2007-10-31)
Scientists find 'pinwheels' in Quintuplet cluster
Discovery of pinwheel-shaped dust spirals around two of the mysterious cocoon stars in the Quintuplet cluster tells scientists for the first time that they contain a duo of stars instead of just one. view more (2006-08-21)
Hubble sees magnetic monster in erupting galaxy
The Hubble Space Telescope has found the answer to a long-standing puzzle by resolving giant but delicate filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275. It is the most striking example of the influence of these immense tentacles of extragalactic magnetic fields, say researchers. view more (2008-08-21)
Radio telescopes extend astronomy's best 'yardstick'
Radio astronomers have directly measured the distance to a faraway galaxy, providing a valuable "yardstick" for calibrating large astronomical distances and demonstrating a vital method that could help determine the elusive nature of the mysterious Dark Energy that pervades the Universe. view more (2009-06-09)
A New 3-D Animated Map Of Our Cosmic Hometown
For the first time, we now have a three-dimensional map of our closest cosmic neighbourhood which shows not only how our nearest neighbour stars are distributed today - it also shows precisely how fast each of them moves, and in which direction. Astronomers have measured the velocities of many thousands of stars and computed both where they were... view more... (2004-04-06)
Scientists elucidate the origin of the darkest galaxies in the universe
Ghostly galaxies composed almost entirely of dark matter speckle the universe. Unlike normal galaxies, these extreme systems contain very few stars and are almost devoid of gas. view more (2007-02-15)
Mapping the Milky Way
A new map of the centre of our own galaxy, The Milky Way, is the biggest, most detailed, and most sensitive yet made. The map shows giant streamers and huge clouds of interstellar gas where stars are being born 26,000 light years from Earth - shedding new light on the exotic structures in this unusual region of our own galaxy. An international... view more... (2000-12-19)
Gamma-ray bursts: are we safe?
For a few seconds every day, Earth is bombarded by gamma rays created by cataclysmic explosions in distant galaxies. Such explosions, similar to supernovae, are known as 'gamma-ray bursts' or GRBs. Astronomers using ESA's X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, are trying to understand the cause of these extraordinary explosions from the X-rays given out... view more... (2003-09-17)
ESA finds a black-hole flywheel in the Milky Way
Far away among the stars, in the Ara constellation of the southern sky, a small black hole is whirling space around it. If you tried to stay still in its vicinity, you couldn`t. You`d be dragged around at high speed as if you were riding on a giant flywheel. In reality, gas falling into the black hole is whirled in that way. It radiates energy,... view more... (2002-04-26)
Violent galaxy seen in 3-D
Astronomers at the Gemini telescope in Hawaii have obtained a complete, multi-dimensional picture, of the dynamic flow of gas and stars at the core of an active galaxy [NGC 1068] located 70 million light years away. The image was achieved in a single snapshot and is the first time such a picture has been obtained by one of the new generation of... view more... (2002-03-21)
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