Milky Way

Nasa is directing the James Webb Space Telescope to track asteroid 2024 YR4, whose collision risk with Earth has risen to 2.3 per cent, in a bid to better understand its size and trajectory

Hubble Telescope previously discovered eight rings of the gargantuan structure, but astronomers confirmed the ninth ring with the help of Hawaii's WM Keck Observatory

The plasma jets of this cosmic giant span 3.3 million light-years from end to end - over 32 times the size of the Milky Way

Named 'Firefly Sparkle,' this galaxy is distinguished by its low mass, offering a rare glimpse into early galaxy formation

A huge success for astronomers as they captured an extreme close-up image of the dying star, WOH G64, which is 1,60,000 light years away from our milky way

After travelling over 47 years in space, Nasa's Voyager 1 spacecraft thrusters have reportedly been clogged with silicon dioxide impairing its communication with earth

One-third of the planets orbiting the most common stars across the Milky Way galaxy may hold onto liquid water and possibly harbour life, according to a study based on latest telescope data. The most common stars in our galaxy are considerably smaller and cooler, sporting just half the mass of the Sun at most. Billions of planets orbit these common dwarf stars. The analysis, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that two-thirds of the planets around these ubiquitous small stars could be roasted by tidal extremes, sterilising them. However, that leaves one-third of the planetshundreds of millions across the galaxythat could be in a goldilocks orbit close enough, and gentle enough, to be possibly habitable. "I think this result is really important for the next decade of exoplanet research, because eyes are shifting towards this population of stars," said Sheila Sagear, a doctoral student at the University of Florida (UF) in the US. "These st

Large gamma-ray emitting bubbles around the center of our Galaxy were produced by fast-blowing outward winds and the associated "reverse shock," suggests a scientist from Tokyo Metropolitan University

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have spotted signs of a 'hot spot' orbiting Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. The finding helps us better understand the enigmatic and dynamic environment of our supermassive black hole."We think we're looking at a hot bubble of gas zipping around Sagittarius A* on an orbit similar in size to that of the planet Mercury, but making a full loop in just around 70 minutes. This requires a mind blowing velocity of about 30% of the speed of light!" says Maciek Wielgus of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, who led the study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.The observations were made with ALMA in the Chilean Andes -- a radio telescope co-owned by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) -- during a campaign by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration to image black holes. In April 2017 the EHT linked together eight existing radio telescopes ...

Stars are the machines that sculpt the universe, yet scientists don't fully know how they form

No Gamma rays from a dwarf galaxy solve an astronomical puzzle

The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than our Sun

A new research published in The Planetary Science Journal has now evoked a renewed interest in the system, with astronomers finding that the exoplanets have remarkably similar densities

The merging galaxy formed 4.5 billion years ago is dubbed ID2299 and is ejecting gases equivalent to 10,000 Suns-worth of gas a year

Before Nasa retired the Kepler space telescope in 2018, nine years of the telescope's observations revealed that there were billions of planets in our galaxy

Likely to be launched in December 2023 from Antarctica, ASTHROS will spend about three weeks drifting on air currents above the icy southern continent

Kipping used the statistical tools of Bayesian Inference to see if life should exist on Earth

It is also relatively nearby, just over 63 light years, and surrounded by a disk of stellar dust

Much of the current understanding of the spiral shape and structure of our galaxy is built upon indirect measurements to celestial landmarks and inferences based on other galaxies in the universe

Unlike the water molecules, which settle again, the stars retain a 'memory' that they were perturbed