Milky Way

New map of Milky Way reveals giant wave of stellar nurseries

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Astronomers at Harvard University have discovered a monolithic, wave-shaped gaseous structure – the largest ever seen in our galaxy – made up of interconnected stellar nurseries. Dubbed the “Radcliffe wave” in honor of the collaboration’s home base, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the discovery transforms a 150-year-old vision of nearby stellar nurseries as an … Read more New map of Milky Way reveals giant wave of stellar nurseries

ESO telescope images stunning central region of Milky Way, finds ancient star burst

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ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has observed the central part of the Milky Way with spectacular resolution and uncovered new details about the history of star birth in our galaxy. Thanks to the new observations, astronomers have found evidence for a dramatic event in the life of the Milky Way: a burst of star formation … Read more ESO telescope images stunning central region of Milky Way, finds ancient star burst

Milky Way’s big black hole hurls star to infinity and beyond

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An international study has discovered a star travelling at more than six million km/h through the Milky Way after being flung from the centre of our galaxy by a supermassive black hole. The eviction occurred about five million years ago, around the time when our ancestors were just learning to walk upright. Emeritus Professor Gary … Read more Milky Way’s big black hole hurls star to infinity and beyond

Scientists may have discovered whole new class of black holes

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Black holes are an important part of how astrophysicists make sense of the universe – so important that scientists have been trying to build a census of all the black holes in the Milky Way galaxy. But new research shows that their search might have been missing an entire class of black holes that they … Read more Scientists may have discovered whole new class of black holes

Not long ago, the center of the Milky Way exploded

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A titanic, expanding beam of energy sprang from close to the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way just 3.5 million years ago, sending a cone-shaped burst of radiation through both poles of the Galaxy and out into deep space. That’s the finding arising from research conducted by a team of scientists … Read more Not long ago, the center of the Milky Way exploded

The violent history of the big galaxy next door

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Astronomers have pieced together the cannibalistic past of our neighbouring large galaxy Andromeda, which has now set its sights on the Milky Way as its next main course. The galactic detective work found that Andromeda has eaten several smaller galaxies, likely within the last few billion years, with left-overs found in large streams of stars. … Read more The violent history of the big galaxy next door

Giant balloon-like structures discovered at center of Milky Way

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An international team of astronomers using the MeerKAT telescope has discovered enormous balloon-like structures that tower hundreds of light-years above and below the centre of our galaxy. Caused by a phenomenally energetic burst that erupted near the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole a few million years ago, the MeerKAT radio bubbles are shedding light on … Read more Giant balloon-like structures discovered at center of Milky Way

Busy older stars outpace stellar youngsters, new study shows

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The oldest stars in our Galaxy are also the busiest, moving more rapidly than their younger counterparts in and out of the disk of the Milky Way, according to new analysis carried out at the University of Birmingham. The findings provide fresh insights into the history of our Galaxy and increase our understanding of how … Read more Busy older stars outpace stellar youngsters, new study shows

Discovering exoplanets with gravitational waves

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In a recent paper in Nature Astronomy, Nicola Tamanini from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute/AEI) in Potsdam and Camilla Danielski from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay, Paris suggest how the planned space-based gravitational-wave observatory LISA can detect exoplanets orbiting white dwarf binaries everywhere in … Read more Discovering exoplanets with gravitational waves