Milky Way

The Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the universe and home to our own solar system. It appears as a hazy band in the sky when viewed from Earth.

A baby Milky Way may have swallowed a dwarf galaxy named Loki

Galaxies, Milky Way

The Milky Way and Andromeda may not merge, after all

Cosmology, Galaxies, Milky Way

New Horizons measures how dark the universe can get

NGC 2623 is a great example of what a pair of interacting galaxies looks like, 260 million light-years distant. Galaxies need mergers or other cosmic events to perturb different regions and trigger star formation and galaxy evolution.

Survivors from the Milky Way’s birth

A visualization of the Milky Way galaxy spotlights the two newfound streams of ancient stars, Shiva (green) and Shakti (pink). Credit: S. Payne-Wardenaar/K. Malhan/MPIA

Milky Way, Science

Ancient star streams, named Shiva and Shakti, may be Milky Way’s earliest building blocks

An artist’s conception shows the orbits of both the star (in blue) and the black hole (in red), dubbed Gaia BH3, around their common center of mass. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/Space Engine (spaceengine.org)

Exotic Objects, Milky Way, Science

Astronomers uncover ‘sleeping giant’ black hole Gaia BH3, the largest ever found in the Milky Way

Exotic Objects, Milky Way

How do you find a black hole? An astronomer explains the thrilling hunt

The beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 83, which our Milky Way may resemble.

Milky Way, Science

The Milky Way, to ancient Egyptians, was probably mixed Nuts

When stars “die,” they leave one of two objects behind. Massive stars explode as supernovae, creating remnants of gas and dust like the Crab Nebula (M1). Credit: ASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)

Milky Way, Stars

How many stars die in the Milky Way each year?

Cosmology, Exotic Objects, Galaxies, Milky Way, Solar System, Space Exploration, Stars

The largest digital camera ever made for astronomy is done

Exotic Objects, Milky Way, Science

The Milky Way’s central black hole could have a hidden jet

This image shows the star-studded center of the Milky Way towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The most famous cosmic object in this image still remains invisible: the monster at our galaxy’s heart called Sagittarius A*. Astronomers have observed stars spinning around this supermassive black hole (located right in the center of the image), and the black hole consuming clouds of dust as it affects its environment with its enormous gravitational pull. Credit: NASA

Exotic Objects, Galaxies, Milky Way, Science

How Sagittarius A* was found lurking in the center of the Milky Way

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The new study suggests that miniture solar systems would not necessarily look like our own. This composite of planets in our solar system was taken by various NASA spacecraft. Included in the image are (from top to bottom) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Solar system

Our solar system hosts a plethora of fascinating planets and other objects.

Credit: Marco Lorenzi.

Stars

These giant, glowing balls of gas are vital to the evolution of the cosmos.

Artist’s conception of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech).

Milky Way

Our home galaxy hosts hundreds of billions of stars orbited by countless worlds.

Located 12 million light-years away, M82 appears high in the northern spring sky in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It is also called the “Cigar Galaxy” because of the elliptical shape produced by the oblique tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight. Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

Galaxies

These sprawling star factories are home to millions to trillions of stars.

In this artist’s rendition, the newly discovered planet is shown as a hot, rocky, geologically-active world glowing in the deep red light of its nearby parent star, the M dwarf Gliese 876. Credit: Trent Schindler, National Science Foundation.

Exoplanets

Our cosmos is filled with countless bizarre worlds around other stars.

An artist’s imagination of hydrocarbon pools, icy and rocky terrain on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon. Credit: Steven Hobbs (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia).

Alien life

Only one planet we know of hosts life. But the hunt for extraterrestrial life is on.

This artist’s conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at the core of a young, star-rich galaxy. Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have uncovered two of these early objects, dating back to about 13 billion years ago. The monstrous black holes are among the most distant known, and appear to be in the very earliest stages of formation, earlier than any observed so far. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Exotic objects

The universe is filled with extreme objects, from black holes to pulsars and more.

Based on the study, astronomers have updated the timeline of the universe to reflect when the first stars are now thought to have appeared, some 180 million years after the Big Bang. Credit: N. R. Fuller/National Science Foundation.

Cosmology

The origin, evolution, and fate of the universe is shrouded in mystery.

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