Astronomers may have solved the case of the Milky Way’s missing satellite galaxies. The solution? The galaxies never existed.
Galaxies
Clouds Rain Down on Black Hole
Astronomers have detected three cold gas clumps falling toward a galaxy's center — at odds with the prevailing idea for how black holes grow.
Galaxy Cluster Spotted in Early Universe
Astronomers discover a vast collection of young galaxies from the early universe.
How Dead Galaxies Stay Dead
A galaxy in the midst of a merger isn’t forming stars, even though it could. Astronomers think the galaxy’s central black hole might be the reason why.
Dark Dwarf Galaxy Discovered
Astronomers using the ALMA array of radio dishes have detected a dwarf galaxy 4 billion light-years away by the pull of its dark matter.
Hidden Galaxies Revealed
Astronomers studying the infrared glow that pervades the universe have pinned down its source: dusty, faint, and faraway galaxies.
Super Spiral Galaxies
Astronomers have identified 53 “super spirals” — spiral galaxies that are huge and incredibly luminous — as part of a project exploring archived observations.
Hubble Finds Most Distant Galaxy Yet
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have measured a precise distance to a galaxy dwelling in the cosmic dawn.
Galaxies Hidden Behind the Milky Way
Astronomers have detected hundreds of galaxies lying hidden behind the Milky Way's disk, many of which belong to the so-called Great Attractor, or Norma Supercluster.
Giant Cloud Came from the Milky Way
The massive Smith Cloud falling toward our galaxy’s disk is likely from our galaxy, not a visitor.
A Galaxy Hit-and-Run
Ripples found in the Milky Way’s disk reveal our galaxy survived an ancient hit-and-run. Now, astronomers might have caught the culprit.
Seeing Shadows of Ancient Galaxies
A new technique lets astronomers measure nearly invisible clouds of hydrogen gas from across the universe.
Astronomers Take Galaxy’s Pulse
Astronomers have caught a giant elliptical galaxy “shimmering” as its stars pulsate.
Pulsars’ Gamma Rays Highlight Mysteries
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered that almost all of the highest energy photons in the Large Magellanic Cloud come from two pulsars.
Small Galaxies Helped Light Up Universe
Hubble observations confirm that much of the light that broke up the early universe’s hydrogen came from the smallest galaxies.
Making the Brightest, Rarest Galaxies
Some of the universe’s most luminous galaxies are also the most mysterious. New simulations shed light on how these galaxies formed.
Dwarf Bull’s-eye Galaxy Discovered
Astronomers have discovered that one galaxy of a nearby double-galaxy system has a giant, star-studded ring.
At the IAU: New Dwarf Galaxy Neighbors & Dark-Sky Sanctuaries
As the IAU General Assembly in Hawaii'i draws to a close, the results were still coming in: a new bevy of dwarf galaxies discovered around the Milky Way, the celebration of the first Dark-Sky Sanctuary, and a new directly imaged exoplanet to boot.
“The Universe Is Dying” — So What?
Recent headlines proclaim that the universe is dying, but we’ve actually known that for decades. Here’s what’s really interesting about recent research on the nearby universe.
Gigantic Protogalaxy in the Cosmic Web
Astronomers have found that a massive filament of gas in the early universe actually seems to be a humongous, galaxy-forming disk.
Cosmic Wind Erodes Distant Galaxy
On Earth, wind can transform entire landscapes - turns out the same is true in space. Galaxy NGC 4921 faces an intracluster wind that's eroding its star-forming terrain.
Seeing Signs of the First Stars?
Astronomers have come upon the tantalizing signal from some of the universe’s first stars.
Weighing a Supermassive Black Hole
Combining a novel technique and a world-class telescope, astronomers have measured the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of barred spiral NGC 1097.
Dust-poor Early Galaxies
New ALMA observations reveal low levels of dust in nine early galaxies, suggesting astronomers should revise some of their calculations.
Dark Galaxies Suffuse the Coma Cluster
Following on a surprising find reported last year, astronomers have now discovered almost 1,000 dark matter-rich galaxies in the Coma Cluster.