Wild Theory Suggests Dark Matter Could Make Stars Immortal
Stars very close to the center of our galaxy could be fueled by dark matter in perpetuity, according to a team of astronomers who recently studied the distant light sources.…
Astronomers Witness a Supermassive Black Hole Roaring to Life
Five years ago, a galaxy 300 million light-years away got a lot brighter in telescopes, radiating ultraviolet, optical, and infrared light out into space. This year, the resurgent galaxy started…
Recent Cosmic Collision Shakes Up Milky Way History
Evidence of the Milky Way’s past is encoded in wrinkles of stars, whose positions and movements have shifted as our galaxy has interacted with other galaxies, sometimes violently. Now, a…
Webb Spots Most Distant Galaxy Ever Seen—and It’s Weirdly Bright
Researchers recently observed a record-breaking galaxy beaming with young stars, which existed only 290 million years after the universe came into existence, challenging our view of the Cosmic Dawn with…
Spin of Supermassive Black Hole Measured at a Quarter the Speed of Light
An artist’s impression of Gilese 12 b in orbit around its red dwarf host star.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC) A newly discovered exoplanet, with its surface temperature estimated to be remarkably…
Groundbreaking Measurement Reveals a Black Hole Spinning at a Quarter the Speed of Light
A team of astronomers has managed to calculate the speed of a distant supermassive black hole’s spin thanks to the object’s chance meeting with a star—which it promptly destroyed. How…
Some of the Oldest Stars Were Just Found in Our Own Galaxy
Some stars in our very own Milky Way are some of the earliest ever seen, according to research published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Is Apple’s…
Astronomers Discover Heaviest Stellar Black Hole in the Milky Way
The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Milky Way, but a newly spotted object takes the crown for the most…
New Image Exposes Intense Magnetic Field of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
A new image of our galaxy’s central black hole reveals the magnetic field surrounding the object in polarized light. The image reveals how gas and superheated matter in the immediate…
This App Points You Straight at the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
If you want to stay grounded—which is to say, you want a haunting reminder of your own diminutive size and mortality—do I have the tool for you. Meet Galactic Compass:…