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Astronomy TOP STORY

Astronomers Discover Monster Galaxy Lurking In Distant Dust Clouds

Mars Imaged by Hubble

A team of astronomers including assistant professor Kate Whitaker at the University of Massachusetts Amherst reports today that they have by chance discovered faint traces of a huge galaxy never seen before, dating from the early universe.

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Astronomy TOP STORIES

Gravity Crystals: A New Method For Exploring The Physics Of White Dwarf Stars

Mars Imaged by Hubble

Grab a mixing bowl from your kitchen, throw in a handful of aluminum balls, apply some high voltage, and watch an elegant dance unfold where particles re-arrange themselves into a distinct "crystal" pattern.

A Star Is Born: Using Lasers To Study How Star Stuff Is Made

On a typical day at the world's biggest laser, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California, you can find scientists casually making star-like conditions using 192 high-powered lasers.

Stormy Cluster Weather Could Unleash Black Hole Power And Explain Lack Of Cosmic Cooling

"Weather" in clusters of galaxies may explain a longstanding puzzle, according to a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Gas Waterfalls Reveal Infant Planets Around Young Star

The birthplaces of planets are disks made out of gas and dust.

Going Against the Flow Around a Supermassive Black Hole

At the center of a galaxy called NGC 1068, a supermassive black hole hides within a thick doughnut-shaped cloud of dust and gas.

Black Holes Stunt The Growth Of Dwarf Galaxies

Astronomers at the University of California, Riverside, have discovered that powerful winds driven by supermassive black holes in the centers of dwarf galaxies have a significant impact on the evolution of these galaxies by suppressing star formation.

Revealing the Milky Way's Center

The center of our Milky Way galaxy is hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes by clouds of obscuring dust and gas.

Milky Way Raids Intergalactic 'Bank Accounts'

Our Milky Way is a frugal galaxy. Supernovas and violent stellar winds blow gas out of the galactic disk, but that gas falls back onto the galaxy to form new generations of stars.

Physicists Have Found A Way To 'Hear' Dark Matter

Physicists at Stockholm University and the Max Planck Institute for Physics have turned to plasmas in a proposal that could revolutionise the search for the elusive dark matter.

A Cosmic Pretzel

The two baby stars were found in the [BHB2007] 11 system - the youngest member of a small stellar cluster in the Barnard 59 dark nebula, which is part of the clouds of interstellar dust called the Pipe nebula.

Astronomy In A Low-Carbon Future

The global climate crisis poses new risks to humanity, and with them, new challenges to the practices of professional astronomy.

Two Ancient Migration Events In The Andromeda Galaxy

Astronomers have uncovered two historic events in which the Andromeda Galaxy underwent major changes to its structure.

Record Breaking Observations Find Most Remote Protocluster Of Galaxies

An international team of astronomers with participation by researchers from DAWN, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen has discovered a protocluster of galaxies 13.0 billion light years away using the Subaru, Keck, and Gemini Telescopes in Hawaii.

Spitzer Spots a Starry Region Bursting With Bubbles

A new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a cloud of gas and dust full of bubbles, which are inflated by wind and radiation from young, massive stars.

Black Holes And Their Host Galaxies Grow Old Together

Some relationships are written in the stars. That's definitely the case for supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, according to a new study from Yale University.

Hubble Takes Closer Look at Not-So-'Dead' Neighbor Messier 110

Many of the best-loved galaxies in the cosmos are remarkably large, close, massive, bright, or beautiful, often with an unusual or intriguing structure or history.