Articles tagged with Milky Way
The SALT Telescope will provide unparalleled views of the southern Milky Way and nearby galaxies like the Magellanic Clouds. The telescope's Prime Focus Imaging Spectrograph will capture high-resolution pictures and spectra, enabling scientists to study star formation and galaxy evolution.
Astronomers have conducted the most detailed survey of the Milky Way's inner regions to date, revealing a long stellar bar spanning 27,000 light years. The bar is oriented at about a 45-degree angle relative to the galaxy's center, providing new insights into the galaxy's structure and evolution.
Astronomer Nicolas Dauphas has refined the accuracy of the cosmic clock by comparing the decay of uranium-238 and thorium-232, estimating the age of the Milky Way at approximately 14.5 billion years, plus or minus 2 billion years.
An international team of astronomers has measured the motion of an entire galaxy in the sky using radio telescopes. The measurements show that the galaxy moves at a speed of 190 km/s relative to our Milky Way towards the Andromeda galaxy, and provide insights into the history and future evolution of the Milky Way.
Researchers found a high concentration of X-ray sources near the Galactic center, suggesting multiple black holes are present. The presence of these black holes is consistent with the theory that stellar-mass black holes can sink toward the center of the galaxy through dynamical friction.
Research suggests that filaments in the Galactic center are connected to areas of intense star formation, providing a link between thermal and non-thermal radio emission. The discovery sheds light on the phenomenon behind these striking features.
CU researchers report consistent pattern in deuterium abundance, suggesting smaller amount of chemical evolution and higher infall of near primordial gas to the Milky Way galaxy. The findings provide a better understanding of galactic chemical evolution and its impact on the formation of stars, planets, and life.
Astronomers have observed features of nearby galaxy M33 using infrared pictures from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, revealing details hidden to the human eye. The galaxy is a gigantic laboratory where dust is created in novae and supernovae, being distributed in giant star winds and reborn in new stars.
Astronomers have discovered over 300 newly forming stars in a distant nebula, creating ideal conditions for the formation of new solar systems. The sheer number of objects is astounding, and may force us to rewrite our ideas of star formation and how much of it is going on in the Milky Way.
Astronomers successfully measured the size of Sagittarius A*, the mysterious object at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, using the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope. The black hole has a mass nearly four million times that of the Sun and would fit easily inside Earth's orbit.
A study suggests that debris from the gobbled-up Sagittarius dwarf galaxy may be 'smoking gun' for detecting dark matter's WIMPs. The combination of WIMPs from the Milky Way and Sagittarius could produce a distinct pattern on the DAMA detector, confirming their existence.
Astronomers detect near-infrared flares from hot gas falling into the black hole, revealing its rapid rotation and chaotic environment. The findings provide unprecedented information about what happens just outside the event horizon.
Scientists have found evidence of hot gases on the perimeter of the Coalsack, a cold dust cloud nearby the Milky Way. This discovery may help resolve debates about oxygen VI generation and provide new insights into star formation and galaxy energy production.
The Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2Mass) has completed its vast archive of images and data, featuring five million images, now available online. The survey revealed new class of stars, brown dwarfs, a more complete understanding of the Milky Way's structure, and a detailed database of asteroids.
A previously unseen band of stars beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy has been discovered, approximately 120,000 light years in diameter. The discovery supports the theory that at least part of our galaxy was formed by many smaller or dwarf galaxies mixing together.
Researchers have obtained near-infrared images of the hot spots in radio galaxy 3C 445 using advanced instruments on the VLT ANTU telescope. The images show synchrotron emission associated with an intergalactic shock, providing evidence of cosmic accelerators far from the galaxy and its main jets.
Astronomers uncover a star with extremely low element abundance, providing a unique window into the Milky Way's early stages. The discovery challenges current theories and offers hope for finding 'unpolluted' Big Bang material.
A star orbiting the massive Milky Way centre has been observed approaching the central black hole to within three times the distance between the Sun and Pluto. The new measurements provide conclusive evidence for the existence of a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy.
Researchers have identified new star structures in the halo of the Milky Way that could alter the standard model of the galaxy. The discovery was made using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a cataloging project that has imaged millions of stars.
Researchers have found evidence of turbulence and thick gas in the Magellanic Stream, a vast river of hydrogen flowing into the Milky Way galaxy. This discovery could provide new insights into cosmic cloud and star formation processes, as well as the billion-year evolution of galaxies.
Researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have detected a dark matter object in the Milky Way using microlensing light data and spectroscopy. The team measured the mass, distance, and velocity of the MACHO, a small star with a mass between 5% and 10% of the sun's mass at a distance of 600 light-years.
Researchers have detected a massive compact halo object, or MACHO, using gravitational microlensing event data from the Hubble Space Telescope and European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The object is estimated to be 5-10% the mass of the sun and is thought to comprise up to 50% of the Milky Way's dark matter content.
An international team of astronomers has discovered a very massive stellar black hole in the Milky Way Galaxy, weighing 14 times more than our Sun. The black hole is located in the binary system GRS 1915+105 and feeds on a low-mass star through a steady flow of stellar material.
A team of Belgian and French astronomers have discovered three distant stars with extremely high Lead abundances, exceeding other elements heavier than Iron. This finding aligns with current stellar models predicting the buildup of heavy elements in stellar interiors.
A team of Rutgers astronomers has detected a galaxy without a supermassive black hole at its center, marking the first such discovery. The team used Hubble's high-resolution instruments to observe the galaxy M33 and concluded that only a black hole smaller than 3,000 solar masses could be present.
Astronomers have discovered intriguing patterns of star motion and composition that suggest a remnant of a smaller galaxy consumed by the Milky Way billions of years ago. The study, part of the 2dF Old Stellar Population Survey, aims to investigate the galactic merger that formed the Milky Way's thick disk.
Yale astronomers have discovered that the area around the Milky Way contains remains of small galaxies torn apart by gravity, contradicting previous smooth distribution theories. The study found approximately 150 RR Lyrae variables with proper periods and light variations in a previously surveyed region.
The W49 cluster is believed to contain approximately 100 type O stars, the hottest and most massive stars in our galaxy, all less than 1 million years old. This young star cluster is part of a larger birthing process that will eventually lead to globular clusters like those orbiting the Milky Way.
The Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) has released a massive dataset of infrared images, containing half a million galaxies and 162 million stars. The images are now available for the general public to view on their home computers, thanks to the collaboration between UMass and NASA.
Researchers detect significant amount of deuterium in Sagittarius A cloud, 30 light years from Milky Way's center. The findings suggest that deuterium was created in the first few minutes after Big Bang and is not produced by stars or stellar activity.
A Yale researcher has discovered up to 70 new and very distant RR Lyrae stars in the Milky Way that can provide valuable clues about the galaxy's history and composition. The stars are thought to be among the oldest in the galaxy, with ages of over 12 billion years.
Researchers have discovered a mechanism by which the galaxy is seeded with gas to form new stars, solving a long-standing question of galactic evolution. The discovery confirms that high-velocity clouds play a key role in the chemical evolution of the galaxy by showering it with metal-poor gas.
Researchers have found two nearby streams of stars that appear to be debris from a single dwarf galaxy torn apart by the Milky Way's gravity about 10 billion years ago. These relic streams are part of the Milky Way's outer structure and provide insights into its formation.
The FUSE Satellite will observe wavelengths of light inaccessible to other telescopes, testing models of chemical evolution and determining the primordial abundance of deuterium. This will help scientists understand the origins of the universe, galaxy evolution, and chemical mixing and distribution.
A researcher has detected an enormous black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, with a mass 2.6 million times that of our Sun. The discovery was made using advanced imaging techniques and provides a definitive view of a part of the galaxy previously unseen.
Recent discoveries have revealed that Gamma-Ray Bursts originate from the most remote parts of the universe, releasing enormous amounts of energy in just 10 seconds. The high-redshift burst announcement adds to the body of research indicating these explosions are the most powerful in the Universe.
Astronomers discover a small galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, which is surprisingly sturdy due to its high dark matter content. The discovery challenges current understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.
Recent discoveries demonstrate that Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) originate from the most remote parts of the universe, releasing as much energy in 10 seconds as the Sun emits in its entire lifetime. The uniform distribution on the sky and brightness distribution rule out galactic halo and suggest distances exceeding billions of light years.