Milky Way Gas Cloud Causes Multiple Images of Distant Quasar

For the first time, astronomers have seen the image of a distant quasar split into multiple images by the effects of a cloud of ionized gas in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Such events were predicted as early as 1970, but the first evidence for one now has come from the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope system.

The scientists observed the quasar 2023+335, nearly 3 billion light-years from Earth, as part of a long-term study of ongoing changes in some 300 quasars. When they examined a series of images of 2023+335, they noted dramatic differences. The differences, they said, are caused by the radio waves from the quasar being bent as they pass through the Milky Way gas cloud, which moved through our line of sight to the quasar.

The Milky Way Supernova You've Never Heard Of

Every year astronomers see hundreds of supernovae erupt in other galaxies, but from such great distances these stellar explosions look only like bright dots. Researchers therefore prize the few supernovae that past observers witnessed in the Milky Way, where telescopes can scrutinize the wreckage. Since the year A.D. 1000, skywatchers have seen five of our galaxy's stars die in brilliant explosions. Now a new distance determination to the most mysterious of these is yielding new insight into its nature.

The Sacale of the Universe

Solar system’s birth record revised

Some 4.567 billion years ago, our solar system’s planets spawned from an expansive disc of gas and dust rotating around the sun. While similar processes are witnessed in younger solar systems throughout the Milky Way, the formative stages of our own solar system were believed to have taken twice as long to occur. 

Now, new research lead by the Centre for Star and Planet Formation at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, suggests otherwise. Indeed, our solar system is not quite as special as once believed.

Monster Galaxy May Have Been Stirred Up By Black-hole Mischief

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a whopper of an elliptical galaxy that may have been puffed up by the actions of one or more black holes in its core.

Spanning a little more than one million light-years, the galaxy is about 10 times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. The bloated galaxy is a member of an unusual class of galaxies with a diffuse core filled with a fog of starlight where there would normally be a concentrated peak of light around a central black hole. Viewing the core is like seeing a city with no downtown, just houses sprinkled across a vast landscape.

Hyperfast Stars Point to Black Hole Slingshot

The black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is by far the nearest such supermassive gravitational monster to our sun, yet observing this space-time maelstrom is a challenge because it is 27,000 light-years away and obscured in visible light by intervening star clouds and dust lanes in the galactic plane.

The region of space profoundly warped by the black hole is a little more than a light-year across.

Астрономы опубликовали "гигафото" центра Млечного Пути

Астрономы Европейской южной обсерватории получили самое подробное на сегодняшний день изображение центра Млечного Пути. Девятигигапиксельная фотография опубликована на сайте обсерватории (оригинал, 25 Гбайт, версия с инструментами увеличения), там же приводится краткое описание работы астрономов.

No Star Left Behind: Fruitless Search for Supernova Survivor Hints at Unexpected Origins

A type Ia supernova is perhaps the ultimate combination of insult and injury—a star steals material from a companion star, reaches critical mass, becomes unstable, and then unleashes a nuclear blast powerful enough to decimate or destroy its already diminished victim.

The culprit in these cases is clear: type Ia supernovae arise from the cataclysmic explosions of small, dense stars known as white dwarfs. But the victim's identity is clouded, limiting the precision of cosmological distance estimates that rely on these luminous beacons as markers. Traditionally, scientists believed that with the victims were sunlike main-sequence stars or swollen giant stars. But recent studies have pointed to a major role for a lesser known mechanism—pairings of two white dwarfs in which one cannibalizes its orbital companion before exploding as a supernova.

NASA'S Chandra Shows Milky Way is Surrounded by Halo of Hot Gas

WASHINGTON -- Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. The estimated mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the galaxy.

If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it also could be an explanation for what is known as the "missing baryon" problem for the galaxy.

Gas Cloud Hurtling toward Milky Way's Black Hole May Harbor Young Star

A gas cloud that is careering towards the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way may be the visible trail of a planet-forming disk surrounding a young, low-mass star, astrophysicists propose.

Modeling work by Ruth Murray-Clay and Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, suggests that planets can form within the powerful gravitational field of a giant black hole. And it heightens expectations about what astronomers might learn as the cloud nears the galaxy’s biggest black hole — an event expected to cause a spectacular light show that could begin as early as next year. The model is published today in Nature Communications.

Planck Satellite Observations May Help Solve the Mystery of Dark Matter

The Planck Satellite has observed a very unique emission of radio radiation from the center of the Milky Way, moving scientists closer than ever to a solution to the origin of dark matter.

The universe is comprised of a large amount of invisible matter, dark matter. It fills the space between the galaxies and between the stars in the galaxies. Since the prediction of the existence of dark matter more than 70 years ago, all sorts of researchers – astronomers, cosmologists and particle physicists have been looking for answers to what it could be. With the latest observations from the Planck satellite, researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, may be closer than ever to a solution to the origin of the mysterious dark matter.

Milky Way Now Has a Twin (or Two): Astronomers Find First Group of Galaxies Just Like Ours

Research presented Aug. 23, 2012 at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Beijing has found the first group of galaxies that is just like ours, a rare sight in the local Universe.

The Milky Way is a fairly typical galaxy on its own, but when paired with its close neighbours -- the Magellanic Clouds -- it is very rare, and could have been one of a kind, until a survey of our local Universe found another two examples just like us.

Astronomer Dr Aaron Robotham, jointly from the University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and the University of St Andrews in Scotland, searched for groups of galaxies similar to ours in the most detailed map of the local Universe yet, the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey (GAMA).

Milky Way's Black Hole Once Active

Evidence continues to mount that our galaxy's supermassive black hole was not always the quiet neighbor it is now.

There’s a dragon dozing in the Milky Way’s core. Hidden from sight by our galaxy’s dusty disk, a supermassive black hole sleeps fitfully. Sometimes a cloud of gas might whisk around its nostrils or a star fall on its head and make the dragon snort a bit of flame, then go back to sleep. But a few million years ago, something managed to rouse the beast so completely that it spewed plasma jets and a couple of big bubbles into space.

If you're feeling too important, take a peek at this

No, these aren't cellphones at a darkened stadium concert.

A little larger than that. This is Messier 107. It's just one cluster of stars in our Milky Way.

The Milky Way has more than 150 of these immense star clusters.

And each one of these clusters contains hundreds of thousands of stars.

Milky Way still recovering from mysterious impact, scientists say

For those of you worried about the nearby Andromeda galaxy colliding with our own Milky Way in the distant future, here’s a little perspective: Turns out our spiral galaxy is still reeling from a hard knock it suffered as recently as 100 million years ago  -- but it’s likely to recover just as quickly, say researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.

Fermilab scientists looked at about 300,000 stars cataloged by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – which has mapped a full 35% of the sky using an optical telescope in New Mexico – and noticed something strange: Some nearby stars north and south of the Milky Way’s plane were out of sync relative to one another.

Milky Way and Moonrise

Milky Way and Moonrise in USA

Big Apple's Milky Way Galaxy: When Real Stars Shined Over NYC

With the bright moon out of our evening sky this week, it's a great time to get away from city lights and explore the beautiful summer Milky Way. But 35 years ago today, even New Yorkers got a glimpse of our home galaxy.

Today (July 13) marks the 35th anniversary of a night that I will always remember. At 9:29 p.m. EDT, lightning from a severe thunderstorm struck a power plant at Indian Point, New York. The result was sudden power failure that plunged all of New York City into darkness.

Milky Way Galaxy at Its Best in July Night Sky

It's possible that most people on Earth have never seen the Milky Way, the galaxy in which we live. The Milky Way used to be a part of every human's life experience, but now that the majority of mankind lives in cities, with their light pollution, the Milky Way is rarely seen.

Our Milky Way galaxy is at its best for the next couple of weeks, but most of you will need to make a special effort to see it. It will probably require a drive of an hour or more to reach a dark enough location, where the Milky Way will be visible. Then it will require another 20 minutes for your eyes to become adjusted to the dark.

Galaxia din Andromeda

Galaxia din Andromeda este cea mai apropiata galaxie mare de a noastra. Aceasta galaxie este o spirala de clasa Sb si face parte din Grupul Local. Galaxia din Andromeda este cunoscuta si drept M31 si NGC 224. Ea se afla in constelatia Andromeda si este cel mai indepartat obiect ce poate fi vazut cu ochiul liber (desi, observatorii pasionati pot vedea uneori si galaxia Triangulum). 

Estimarile recente sugereaza ca Andromeda este mai mare dar mai putin masiva decat Calea Lactee. Aceasta este acompaniata de cel putin 10 galaxii satelit, printre care: M32 si M110 (ambele vizibile cu ajutorul binoclului); NGC 185 (descoperita de William Herschel); NGC 147 (descoperita de Louis d’Arrest); sistemele sferoidale pitice And I, And II, And III si And V; galaxia neregulata pitica And IV (desi aceasta ar putea fi un cluster); And VI (cunoscuta sub numele de Pitica Pegasus) si And VII (cunoscuta sub numele de Pitica Cassiopeia).

Milky Way collision reverberating 100 million years later

A satellite galaxy or other massive object that passed through the Milky Way 100 million years ago was such a shock to the system that its many millions of stars are still showing the effects of the collision today, a team of Canadian and U.S. physicists has found.

Astrophysicist Lawrence Widrow of Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., and his colleagues looked at data for hundreds of thousands of stars in the Milky Way and found that the way they were moving within what is known as the disk of the galaxy indicated they had been disturbed in some way.