galactic

Astronomers Detect Rare ‘Missing Link’ Black Hole in Our Closest Galactic Neighbor

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A rare treasure that could shed light on the evolution of black holes has been discovered in the Milky Way’s closest large galactic neighbor. In a cluster of stars in the Andromeda galaxy, aka M31, astronomers studied changes in light to identify a black hole clocking in at almost 100,000 times the mass of the … Read more

Giant galactic bubble is driving star formation, new study finds

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This visualization shows the Local Bubble with star formation happening on its surface. (Image credit: Leah Hustak (STScI)) Earth is surrounded by a vast bubble about 1,000 light-years wide whose borders drive the formation of all nearby young stars, a new study finds. For decades, astronomers have known the solar system lies within the so-called … Read more

Colossal ‘Fossil’ Structures Have Been Detected Lurking on The Outskirts of Our Galaxy

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From Earth’s vantage point in one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms, the structure of our galaxy is pretty difficult to reconstruct. That’s because gauging the distance to something in space when you don’t know its intrinsic brightness is really, really hard. And there are a lot of objects in the Milky Way whose brightness … Read more

The Deepest Images Yet of The Galactic Center Reveal a Beautiful Cosmic Dance

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In the heart of the Milky Way, stars tread a complex measure. Bound by the gravitational field of the supermassive black hole in the galactic center, Sagittarius A*, a group of stars known as S-stars swoop on wild, years-long orbits. These orbits were recently studied to measure Sgr A*, a result that won the scientists … Read more