Latest Galactic astronomy Stories

Corrects name in 12th paragraph to read "... Robert Lupton" ... instead of "... Robert Lufton." By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Milky Way is warped -- like a bowl, a saddle or the brim of a fedora hat, depending on when you look -- and a pair of interloping galaxies may be to blame, astronomers said on Monday. Earth is in a fairly non-warped neighborhood, because it lies relatively close to the center of the Milky Way's disk, said Leo Blitz of the University of...

Galaxy's warp explained by Magellanic Clouds plowing through dark matter haloThe most prominent of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies - a pair of galaxies called the Magellanic Clouds - appears to be interacting with the Milky Way's ghostly dark matter to create a mysterious warp in the galactic disk that has puzzled astronomers for half a century. The warp, seen most clearly in the thin disk of hydrogen gas permeating the galaxy, extends across the entire 200,000-light year diameter of the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The one-way journey from the heart of a galaxy into the oblivion of a black hole probably takes about 200,000 years, astronomers said on Monday. By tracking the death spiral of cosmic gas at the center of a galaxy called NGC1097, scientists figured that material moving at 110,000 miles an hour would still take eons to cross into a black hole. Black holes are drains in space that have gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. Huge...

NASA -- In an investigation smacking of forensic detective work, scientists have measured the rate of star death and rebirth in our galaxy by combing through the sparse remains of exploded stars from the last few million years. As reported in the January 5 issue of Nature, the scientists used the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL satellite to explore regions of the galaxy shining brightly from the radioactive decay of aluminum-26, an isotope of aluminum. This aluminum is produced in massive...

Gemini Observatory -- A storm of billowing clouds blown by the winds from massive stars, and set aglow by their light, is the focus of a striking image released today by Gemini Observatory. Known as the N44 superbubble complex, this cloudy tempest is dominated by a vast bubble about 325 by 250 light-years across. A cluster of massive stars inside the cavern has cleared away gas to form a distinctive mouth-shaped hollow shell. While astronomers do not agree on exactly how this bubble has...

JPL -- The "Christmas Tree Cluster" has been seen sporting a shiny new decoration: an ornament made of newborn stars! But like a gift-wrapped package, these newborn stars are hiding behind thick branches of cosmic dust, only revealed in this spectacular new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.Astronomers say this stellar ornament represents the best laboratory to date for studying the physics of star formation. The newly revealed infant stars appear as pink and red specks...

JPL -- Astronomers have at last found inner light! Only, they didn't find it through the typical Earthly methods of meditation, exercise and therapy. Instead, the light was discovered inside our Milky Way galaxy after hours of deep self-reflection with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The astronomers, who are members of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) team, used Spitzer's heat-seeking infrared eyes to gaze at the dust-drenched plane of our galaxy. When...

ESO -- Observations with Kueyen, one of the 8.2m telescopes composing the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), have led to the discovery of a short-lived massive star that is moving at a very high speed through the outer halo of the Milky Way galaxy and into intergalactic space. This finding could provide evidence for a previously unknown massive black hole in the heart of the Milky Way's closest neighbour, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The star, named HE 0437-5439, was discovered by the Hamburg/ESO...

MADISON - With the help of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have conducted the most comprehensive structural analysis of our galaxy and have found tantalizing new evidence that the Milky Way is much different from your ordinary spiral galaxy. The survey using the orbiting infrared telescope provides the fine details of a long central bar feature that distinguishes the Milky Way from more pedestrian spiral galaxies. "This is the best evidence ever for this long central bar in...

MADISON -- With the help of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have conducted the most comprehensive structural analysis of our galaxy and have found tantalizing new evidence that the Milky Way is much different from your ordinary spiral galaxy. The survey using the orbiting infrared telescope provides the fine details of a long central bar feature that distinguishes the Milky Way from more pedestrian spiral galaxies. "This is the best evidence ever for this long central bar...