milky way
One of the Oldest Stars in the Galaxy has a Planet. Rocky Planets Were Forming at Nearly the Beginning of the Universe
Would it be surprising to find a rocky planet that dates back to the very early Universe? It should be.…
You Can Actually See the Milky Way’s Wave When You Map Its Stars
Spiral galaxies are one of the most commonly known types of galaxy. Most people think of them as large round…
Astronomers Discover Hundreds of High-Velocity Stars, Many on Their Way Out of the Milky Way
Combining data from two of the largest databases in the world, an international team of astronomers was able to doubledthe…
A new measurement puts the Sun 2,000 light-years closer to the center of the Milky Way
Ultra-precise measurements of stars in our galaxy put us closer to galactic center than we thought.
A third of the stars in the Milky Way came from a single merger 10 billion years ago
Ten billion years ago the young Milky Way survived a titanic merger with a neighboring galaxy, eventually consuming the whole…
Some of the Milky Way’s oldest stars aren’t where they’re expected to be
Some of the oldest stars in our galaxy have orbits similar to the Sun, and we don't know why
The Spherical Structure at the Core of the Milky Way Formed in a Single Burst of Star Formation
Like other spiral galaxies, the Milky Way has a bulging sphere of stars in its center. It's called "The Bulge,"…
Astronomers Map Out the Raw Material for New Star Formation in the Milky Way
A team of researchers has discovered a complex network of filamentary structures in the Milky Way. The structures are made…
Astronomers Find the Hollowed-Out Shell of a Dwarf Galaxy that Collided With the Milky Way Billions of Years Ago
In 2005 astronomers found a dense grouping of stars in the Virgo constellation. It looked like a star cluster, except…
7% of the Stars in the Milky Way’s Center Came From a Single Globular Cluster That Got Too Close and Was Broken Up
The heart of the Milky Way can be a mysterious place. A gigantic black hole resides there, and it's surrounded…