41–60 of 154 results

Milky Way

Nearby Stellar Nurseries Ride a Giant Wave

Astronomers have found a gigantic, undulating wave of stellar nurseries in our galaxy, just outside the Sun’s orbit in the spiral disk.

Milky Way

Baby Stars Found in Ancient Part of Our Galaxy

Ground- and space-based observations have revealed a group of stars at the head of the giant stream of gas burrowing its way through the Milky Way.

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Bubbles, Heated Clouds Point to Active Past for Galactic Center

Two studies support the suspicion that our galaxy’s black hole had one or more outbursts a few million years ago.

Edge-on view of the

Milky Way

Untangling Stellar Strings in the Milky Way

Long-lived, string-shaped groups of stars align with the Milky Way’s spiral arms — and they may provide clues to what those arms looked like long ago.

warped galaxy disk

Milky Way

Warped Milky Way in 3D

Astronomers have used pulsating stars to trace the crooked shape of our galaxy’s disk.

Antlia 2 simulation

Milky Way

Did a Dwarf Galaxy Crash into the Milky Way?

A recent study suggests the dwarf galaxy Antlia 2 had a long-ago run-in with our galaxy, rippling and warping its disk. But not everyone agrees with that scenario.

GD-1 and Palomar 5

Cosmology

Evidence for a Dark Matter Clump in the Milky Way

There are ghosts in our galaxy’s past. Now astronomers have found a way to detect them.

Gaia's map of 1.7 billion stars in the Milky Way and beyond

Milky Way

Our Quiet Galaxy Used to Burst with Stars

New research shows that our quiet, middle-aged galaxy used to be quite the firecracker — a couple billion years ago it was exploding with new stars.

Milky Way

Astronomers Find Stars Streaming from Our Galaxy’s Biggest Cluster

Astronomers have discovered a stream of stars pulled from Omega Centauri, the largest and most brilliant globular cluster around the Milky Way — and perhaps a one-time dwarf galaxy.

Milky Way and globular clusters

Milky Way

The Milky Way Contains the Mass of 1.5 Trillion Suns

Astronomers are using Gaia and the Hubble Space Telescope to make the most precise measure of the Milky Way’s mass to date. The new result puts our galaxy on par with — if not more massive than — Andromeda.

The Hyades open star cluster

Milky Way

The Beginning of the End for the Hyades Star Cluster

New measurements from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite show that the young stars of the Hyades cluster are beginning to drift apart.

Warped spiral galaxy ESO 510-13

Milky Way

The Milky Way Is Warped in More Ways Than One

Astronomers mapping out luminous stars across our galaxy's disk found that the Milky Way is warped — and multiple factors are twisting its shape.

Image of Small Magellanic Cloud

Milky Way

Evidence Mounts for a Magellanic Collision

Astronomers have suspected for some time that the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds collided in the recent past. The Gaia space telescope provides striking new evidence for a head-on collision.

Illustration of stars sprinting through our Galaxy

Milky Way

Some Stars Around Galaxy May Be From Elsewhere

Data from the Gaia satellite reveal 20 new high-speed stars, 13 of which appear to have originated outside of the Milky Way.

Magellanic Clouds

Galaxies

The Magellanic Clouds Might Once Have Been a Trio

The Milky Way's two largest companion galaxies may have once been a threesome — but new data from the Gaia satellite leaves the satellites' history an open question.

Artist's impression of galactic encounter's aftereffects

Milky Way

Pattern in Milky Way's Stars Suggests Recent Galactic Whack

An unexpected pattern in the Milky Way's disk of stars points to a recent whack from another galaxy.

Gaia's map of 1.7 billion stars in the Milky Way and beyond

Space Missions

Gaia Maps 1.7 Billion Stars, Widens Cosmic Census

With its second data release, the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite has redefined the way we look at our galaxy.

The Milky Way, cropped

Milky Way

Amateurs Take Huge Panoramic View of the Milky Way — Without a Telescope

This is what the largest available image of the Milky Way using only off-the-shelf photographic equipment looks like.

Magellanic Clouds

Milky Way

Supergiant Star Caught Fleeing In Another Galaxy

The discovery of a runaway star in the Small Magellanic Cloud suggests that runaway stars are a common phenomenon in the universe.

X-ray binaries around galactic center (art)

Black Holes

Our Galaxy's Center Might Hold Thousands of Black Holes

A new study has uncovered a dozen stellar-mass black holes within 3 light-years of the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s core — and these might be just the tip of the iceberg.