As if cracking open a cosmic Russian nesting doll, astronomers have peered into the center of the Milky Way and discovered what appears to be a miniature spiral galaxy, swirling daintily around a single large star. The star – located about 26,000 light-years from Earth near the dense and dusty galactic center – is about … Read more
When we see pictures of galaxies outside the Milky Way, what we’re usually looking at is primarily the light of their stars. But stars are far from the only ingredient that makes up a galaxy. Think of stars as the chunks of vegetables in the galactic soup. The broth, then, in which they float, is … Read more
Observations in multiple wavelengths are still ongoing. (Pixabay/Representative photo) Researchers have recently found a new member of a rare category of a star in the Milky Way. According to Science Alert, the star is so rare that only a handful of these have been found to exist so far. It is called MAXI J1816-195 and … Read more
How many of what kinds of stars live in other galaxies? It seems like a simple question, but it’s notoriously hard to pin down because astronomers have such a difficult time estimating stellar populations in remote galaxies. Now a team of astronomers has completed a census of over 140,000 galaxies and found that distant galaxies … Read more
The Milky Way galaxy isn’t very active, as far as galaxies go. Every year, it produces around three to four Suns’ worth of new stars in the entirety of its spiral body, and stars of all ages can be found sprinkled throughout. But there are some galaxies even quieter – elliptical galaxies, for which most … Read more
Measuring the expansion rate of the universe was one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s main goals when it was launched in 1990. Over the past 30 years, the space observatory has helped scientists discover and refine that accelerating rate — as well as uncovering a mysterious wrinkle that only brand-new physics may solve. Hubble has … Read more
Take a good look at the latest image provided by the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows a huge elliptical galaxy called NGC 474 that lies about 100 million light-years away from us. At about two and a half times larger than our Milky Way Galaxy, it’s really a behemoth. Notice its strange structure – mostly … Read more
Mike Novogratz, founder and chief executive officer of Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., at the Bitcoin Conference 2022 in Miami Beach, Fla, on April 6.MARCO BELLO/Reuters The chief executive of Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., a leading cryptocurrency company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has issued a mea culpa for his role in the collapse of … Read more
A new NASA animation shows some of our Milky Way galaxy’s closest black holes, as well as the stars that feed them, and 22 X-ray binaries in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. According to a NASA statement accompanying the film, each pair depicts a black hole at the center of an orange-red accretion disc, the … Read more
Black holes are powerful cosmic engines. They provide the energy behind quasars and other active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This is due to the interaction of matter with its powerful gravitational and magnetic fields. Technically, a black hole doesn’t have a magnetic field on its own, but the dense plasma surrounding the black hole as an … Read more