Astronomers have discovered two new satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, and these findings could help us better understand dark matter — the mysterious stuff that accounts for around 85% of the matter in the universe yet remains effectively invisible to us. The discoveries also move scientists a step closer to solving a lingering problem […]
A starburst galaxy, ablaze with stars in the process of forming, is devouring surrounding dwarf galaxies in a stunning new image from the Gemini North twin telescopes. Bright red and pink strands of gas and dust as well as bright white and blue stars seen in the image compose the galaxy NCG 4449, also known […]
A bright quasar, powered by a supermassive black hole, is blasting out radiation that pushes away clouds of gas in its surroundings to generate winds reaching speeds of around 36 million miles per hour (58 million kilometers per hour). Oh, and the quasar is also nearly as old as the universe itself. The discovery, made by […]
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered what could be the earliest star clusters in the universe. JWST spotted the five proto-globular clusters — swarms of millions of stars bound together by gravity — inside the Cosmic Gems arc, a galaxy that formed just 460 million years after the Big Bang. The Cosmic Gems […]
Eventually, all galaxies, including our own Milky Way, will meet their end. But how do galaxies die? If you’re in the mood to destroy an entire galaxy, you have several options, depending on your desired level of destructiveness. Related: Monster black holes may have murdered their host galaxies in the early universe Option 1: Wake […]
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has done it again. According to new research, astronomers using the powerful infrared telescope have revealed what appears to be the two earliest, most distant galaxies in the known universe, dating to just 300 million years after the Big Bang. The ancient galaxy duo break the records set by […]
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered not one but two of the earliest and most distant galaxies ever seen, continuing to break the records it previously set. The furthest galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0, is seen as it was around 300 million years after the Big Bang, existing at least 100 million years earlier than the […]
For the first time ever, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have detected some of the earliest galaxies in the known universe in the midst of being born. In a new study, published Thursday (May 23) in the journal Science, the researchers report the detection of what appears to be three infant […]
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have found what they say are three of our universe’s earliest galaxies, spotted actively forming when the cosmos was just 400 million to 600 million years old. In the JWST’s images, this galactic trio resembles fuzzy red smudges feeding on nearby helium and hydrogen.Over millions of years, it […]
In July 2023, scientists launched the Euclid Space Telescope into orbit with a straightforward, albeit massive, task: to map the dark universe, revealing the dark matter and dark energy that we cannot directly observe but makes up the bulk of everything. Now, scientists affiliated with the mission have published a huge amount of data that […]
The interstellar clouds of distant, ancient galaxies are often filled with carbon. This means, if astronomers can trace and detect these patches of carbon, which they call neutral carbon absorbers, they can learn quite a lot about how galaxies evolve. Yet, actually detecting neutral carbon absorbers — a process that typically involves finding the distinctive […]
An amateur astronomer from Italy has discovered five new dwarf galaxies around a distant spiral galaxy — a spiral that’s one of the largest galaxies in the sky over Earth. His name is Giuseppe Donatiello, and those five dwarf galaxies are now named Donatiello V, Donatiello VI, Donatiello VII, Donatiello VIII, and Donatiello IX (Do V, […]