milky way
Gaia has Already Given Us 5 New Insights Into the Milky Way
The European Space Agency launched the Gaia mission in 2013. The mission's overall goal was to discover the history of…
The Milky Way is Already Starting to Digest the Magellanic Clouds, Starting With Their Protective Halos of Hot Gas
Massive galaxies like our Milky Way gain mass by absorbing smaller galaxies. The Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic…
The Solar System has been Flying Through the Debris of a Supernova for 33,000 Years
An Ancient Voyage Earth is on a journey… While our planet orbits the Sun each year - a billion kilometers…
Astronomers See Through the Milky Way’s Dust to Track Where Radiation is Coming From at the Center of the Galaxy
The center of our very own galaxy might be one of the Universe's most mysterious places. Astronomers have to probe…
New Estimate Calculates There Could be 30 Intelligent Civilizations Communicating Across the Milky Way
Over the years, scientific estimates of potential intelligent life in our galaxy have ranged widely. Some estimates say just one…
Hubble Photo of Globular Cluster NGC 6441, One of the Most Massive in the Milky Way
The Hubble Space Telescope has delivered another outstanding image. This one is of NGC 6441, a massive globular cluster in…
The Milky Way is surrounded by a huge hot halo of gas
Our Milky Way galaxy isn't just a disk of stars and nebulae - it's surrounded by a cloud of hot,…
Astronomers Find the Source of the Huge Bubbles of Gas Flowing Out of the Milky Way, Still No Idea What Caused Them
There's an unusual paradox hampering research into parts of the Milky Way. Dense gas blocks observations of the galactic core,…
About 3.5 Million Years Ago, a Stream of Gas Outside the Milky Way Would Have Lit Up the Night Sky
It's a truism to point out that modern humans have only been around for the blink of an eye, relative…
The Disk of the Milky Way is Warped Because it Already Collided With Another Galaxy
Using data from the second Gaia data release, a team of astronomers has demonstrated that the "warp" in our galaxy…