Latest Milky Way Galaxy Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online New research using the ultra-sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) has determined that we live in a more upscale neighborhood in our galaxy than previously thought. Considering we reside inside the Milky Way, it is tough for scientists to predict exactly where in our galaxy we sit. Astronomers are able to get a bird's-eye view of other galaxies, but we must use different methods...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel spacecraft has revealed that the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy is about to get a taste of some hot molecular gas. Sagittarius A has a mass of about four million times that of our Sun and sits about 26,000 light-years away from us. It is a few hundred times closer to us than any other galaxy with an active black hole at its center, making it ideal for studying these...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The entire Milky Way galaxy revolves around a supermassive black hole, which is surrounded by a turbulent expanse of space fraught with extreme gravitational forces. Despite the inhospitable nature of this region, a team of American astronomers has found jets of material that typically indicate star formation when found in less tumultuous sections of the universe, according to their report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters....

Rayshell Clapper for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers may now have a way to image the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which has posed problems to scientists trying to image all of its exotic features. Soon they may be able to learn more about the features of the center of the Milky Way and learn more about where they are located in the galaxy by use of radio waves. Prior to the discovery of radio waves, astronomers primarily used optical waves like the X-ray and infrared...

[ Video 1 ] | Video 2 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers using CSIRO's 210-feet Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia have found monstrous outflows of charged particles coming from the center of our galaxy. The researchers said that the outflows contain an extraordinary amount of energy, reaching about a million times the energy of an exploding star. Although the outflows are shooting out at over 600 miles per second, they pose no danger to...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A team of scientists say they have detected the brightest flare ever observed in our galaxy's black hole. The astronomers used NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory to detect the brightest flare ever observed from Sagittarius A*. The black hole is considered to be low-key, emitting very little energy for its size. It gives off about as much energy as the sun, despite it being 4 billion times as massive. The recent flare is 150...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has spotted its first flare from Milky Way's black hole. The new telescope, launched June 13, is the only telescope capable of producing focused images of the highest-energy X-rays, and NASA said it has caught its first look at the black hole. "We got lucky to have captured an outburst from the black hole during our observing campaign," Fiona Harrison, the mission's principal...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's newest set of X-ray eyes in the sky, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), has caught its first look at the giant black hole parked at the center of our galaxy. The observations show the typically mild-mannered black hole during the middle of a flare-up. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "We got lucky to have captured an outburst from the black hole during our observing campaign,"...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists have determined that the black hole in the middle of the Milky Way is getting ready to devour an approaching cloud of dust and gas. The researchers used a supercomputer simulation to determine that the cloud, known as G2, could possibly survive the encounter with the black hole, but its surviving mass would be torn apart and shaped differently. They came up with six simulations using Cosmos++ computer code, requiring more...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Researchers from a Japanese university have discovered intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidates at the center of the Milky Way, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAO) announced on Friday. Tomoharu Oka, an Associate Professor at Keio University, and colleagues used radio telescopes to locate four black hole candidates approximately 30,000 light-years from the solar system, located in the direction of the...