Astronomers View Star Formation in the Central Molecular Zone
Stars form from the gas and dust in molecular clouds via a series of complex processes that are currently only partly understood, and the evolution…
Cosmology
Astronomers Confirm The Existence of Galaxies With No Dark Matter
A Yale-led team of researchers is doubling down on its earlier finding of a galaxy with almost no dark matter. In 2018, the researchers published…
Astronomers View Cosmic Light Show of Star Formation
When massive stars — many times larger than our Sun— are born, they shine hot and bright before eventually exploding as supernovas. They release so…
New Findings Provide Incentive For Cracking Dark Matter Mystery
Researchers from Russia, Finland, and the U.S. have put a constraint on the theoretical model of dark matter particles by analyzing data from astronomical observations…
What Was The Universe Like Before The Big Bang?
A team of scientists has proposed a powerful new test for inflation, the theory that the universe dramatically expanded in size in a fleeting fraction…
New Visualization Provides Ultra HD View of Our Galaxy Center
Want to take a trip to the center of the Milky Way? Check out a new immersive, ultra-high-definition visualization. This 360-movie offers an unparalleled opportunity…
Fermi Discovers “Cannonball” Pulsar Speeding Through Space at Nearly 2.5 Million Miles an Hour
Astronomers found a pulsar hurtling through space at nearly 2.5 million miles an hour — so fast it could travel the distance between Earth and…
Chandra Reveals Galactic Storm Raging in Teacup Galaxy
Fancy a cup of cosmic tea? This one isn’t as calming as the ones on Earth. In a galaxy hosting a structure nicknamed the “Teacup,”…
Scientists Discover 83 Quasars Powered by Supermassive Black Holes
Astronomers from Japan, Taiwan and Princeton University have discovered 83 quasars powered by supermassive black holes in the distant universe, from a time when the…
Astronomers Have A New Theory On Interstellar Rock ‘Oumuamua
Astronomers at Yale and Caltech say that ‘Oumuamua, the much-discussed interstellar space rock, is best viewed as a comet with odd properties — and not…
Surprising Discovery Revealed After Sifting Through Solar System Dust
Just as dust gathers in corners and along bookshelves in our homes, dust piles up in space too. But when the dust settles in the…
Astronomers Discover Closest High-Mass Stellar Objects Ever Measured
Astronomers have discovered a binary star system with the closest high-mass young stellar objects ever measured, providing a valuable “laboratory” to test theories on high…
Hubble & Gaia Reveal Weight of the Milky Way: 1.5 Trillion Solar Masses
In a striking example of multi-mission astronomy, measurements from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the ESA Gaia mission have been combined to improve the…
SOFIA Explores Supergalactic Wind, Provides Clues to Evolution of Galaxies
The Cigar Galaxy (M82) is famous for its extraordinary speed in making new stars, with stars being born 10 times faster than in the Milky…
Why So Many Planets Outside Our Solar System Have An Odd Configuration
For almost a decade, astronomers have tried to explain why so many pairs of planets outside our solar system have an odd configuration — their…
Astronomers Discover Brown Dwarf Binary Star with Microlensing
Brown dwarfs are stars less massive than the sun and unable to burn hydrogen. They comprise (at least in mass) a bridge between planets and…
New Observations Show Clumps of Gas Swirling Around Black Hole
The supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A*, is by far the closest such object to us, only…
Stellar Flyby Helped Shape Our Solar System 3 Million Years Ago
Some of the peculiar aspects of our solar system — an enveloping cloud of comets, dwarf planets in weird orbits and, if it truly exists,…
