Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. The James Webb Space Telescope has captured scintillating portraits of 19 spiral galaxies — and the millions of stars that call them home — in unprecedented detail never seen before by astronomers. Webb’s singular ability to […]
A stunning new Hubble Space Telescope image shows a huge ‘bridge of stars’ extending from one of the galaxies in a galactic grouping to another. The image focuses on the galaxy Arp 295a, from which the 250,000 light-year-long streamer of stars is stretching, as it is seen edge-on by Hubble and surrounded by a milky-colored […]
A treasure trove of images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) showcases 19 spiral galaxies in never-before-seen detail. The new set of pictures show stars, gas, and dust on the smallest scales observed. Researchers are studying the images to uncover the origins and evolution of the intricate structures. Following each of the galaxy’s clearly […]
The universe could be younger than we think, based on the motions of satellite galaxies that reveal how recently they have fallen into a galaxy grouping. According to measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) by the European Space Agency‘s Planck mission, the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. This calculation is based […]
Star formation is in business in a pair of merging galaxies recently photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The spiral galaxies UGC 05028 and UGC 05029 — collectively known as Arp 300 — are in the process of merging. Otherwise known as interacting, or colliding, galaxies, the smaller galaxy (UGC 05028) has been tugged and […]
An intergalactic ring-shaped superstructure of galaxies and galaxy clusters — so large it defies explanation — has been discovered. This is a structure that lives so deep in the universe that we see it as it was some 9.2 billion years ago. The huge superstructure, nicknamed the “Big Ring,” spans 1.3 billion light-years in diameter […]
Many small galaxies that existed early in the universe’s history are elongated in a surfboard-like shape, pointing to the influence of the cosmic web of matter and constant mergers with other small galaxies, deep observations with the James Webb Space Telescope have found. New research using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) found that dwarf […]
Scientists may finally have solved the mystery of cosmic ORCs, or “odd radio circles” as they are officially known, that are so vast they are 10 times the width of the Milky Way and can encompass entire galaxies. A team of astronomers led by University of California San Diego Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Alison Coil have […]
The Small Magellanic Cloud is a nearby galaxy that is very familiar to astronomers — or so they thought. New research suggests that the satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located around 199,000 light-years from Earth, seems to have been hiding a secret: It’s actually two galaxies, one behind the other. To make the discovery, a […]
Hubble spied a collection of spiral galaxies, located at various distances from Earth and gathered for a stunning festive image released on Christmas Day. The largest galaxy in the Hubble Space Telescope image from Monday (Dec. 25) is NGC 1356, which can be seen on the right side of the picture. This spiral galaxy is […]
A newfound population of stars in nearby dwarf galaxies represents the long-sought progenitors of a specific type of stellar death, or supernova, according to new research. Theories have shown that, for every three massive stars, one is stripped of its outer hydrogen layers across hundreds, or even thousands, of years such that its scorching hot […]
A treasure trove of molecules has turned up in two galaxies that we see as they were over 12 billion years ago, revealing information about how the ancient realms form stars. One of the distant galaxies, APM 08279+5255, is home to a quasar — an active supermassive black hole at its core swallowing huge amounts […]