milky way

How Do Stars Get Kicked Out of Globular Clusters?

Globular clusters are densely-packed collections of stars bound together gravitationally in roughly-shaped spheres. They contain hundreds of thousands of stars.…

2 years ago

The Milky Way has an Inner Ring, Just Outside the Core

Combining data from the APOGEE survey and the Gaia Observatory with sophisticated models, a team of scientists has found a…

3 years ago

Gaia Finds Ancient Satellite Galaxy Pontus Embedded in Milky Way

A recent study looked at stellar streams hidden in Gaia’s data, to uncover a torturous past.

3 years ago

Astronomers Scan the Center of the Milky Way for Any Sign of Intelligent Civilizations. Nothing but Silence.

Are there civilizations somewhere else in the Universe? Somewhere else in the Milky Way? That's one of our overarching questions,…

3 years ago

Nearby Supernovae Exploded Just a few Million Years Ago, Leading to a Wave of Star Formation Around the Sun

The Sun isn't the only star in this galactic neighbourhood. Other stars also call this neighbourhood home. But what's the…

3 years ago

An Incredible View Into the Heart of the Small Magellanic Cloud

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is over 200,000 light-years away, yet it's still one of our galaxy's closest neighbours in…

3 years ago

Best Image Ever Taken of Stars Buzzing Around the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

The GRAVITY collaboration just released the clearest images ever of the stars that orbit the supermassive black hole in the…

3 years ago

Once New Horizons was out Beyond Pluto, it Could Finally Measure the Brightness of the Milky Way

The New Horizons spacecraft has been speeding away from Earth since it launched in 2006. Scientists using the Alice UV…

3 years ago

A Black Hole has been Found Lurking Just Outside the Milky Way

Astronomers have found a smaller, stellar-mass black hole lurking in a nearby satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way.  The…

3 years ago

The Large Magellanic Cloud Stole one of its Globular Clusters

Astronomers have known for years that galaxies are cannibalistic. Massive galaxies like our own Milky Way have gained mass by…

3 years ago