The mass of the Milky Way, dark matter included, equals 1.5 trillion solar masses, according torecent NASA estimates. The galaxy's visible matter is distributed between its 200 billionstars, their planets and the massive clouds of dust and gas that fill the interstellar space. Astronomers aren'...
The Milky Way wasn’t always as it is today – a beautiful, warped spiral. It became its current size and shape by eating up other galaxies, and is still doing so today. In fact, theCanis Major Dwarf Galaxyis the closest galaxy to the Milky Way because its stars are currently being a...
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which has worked closely with the ESA on the Planck mission, has used information collected by the satellite and has now released an interactive map of the Milky Way. The interactive map combines nume...
(if interpreted as predicted phenomena like speeds of stars or emitting blobs, timescales associated with consecutive events, or structures like the shadow) in a way relieves many philosophers (especially if facts or statements are being taken literally) from the “commitment to a host of entities...
To get a sense of its immense size, you’ll be glad to hear the Earth is nowhere near the Milky Way’s center and its powerful, supermassive black hole.NASAsays we’re roughly 165 quadrillion miles from the black hole, which is found in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. ...
An artistic rendering of generic stellar streams in the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt, SSC & Caltech Examination of Theia 456 finds its nearly 500 stars were born at same time. TheMilky Wayhouses 8,292 recently discovered stellar streams — all named Theia. But Theia 456 ...
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Far-off alien planets covered in vast oceans might be common in our Milky Way galaxy, scientists find. "Ocean worlds" are terrestrial planets that have significant amounts of water either on their surfaces or in a subsurface sea. Right here in our own ...
A map of the atomic hydrogen (HI) 21-cm line emission (shown as the red haze) in the vicinity of Stephan’s Quintet, a famous compact group of galaxies discovered in 1887, overlaid on a deep optical color image. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI ...
When we stare up into the heavens on a clear night, away from light pollution and other distractions, we can see a milky bar of light that spans across the sky. This is how our home galaxy, the Milky Way, got its name, and it's how it looks from the inside. ...
NASA shares a spectacular image of the heart of the Milky Way Strange radio burst discovered in Milky Way for first time, source identified Astronomers have found our Milky Way’s galactic twin This ancient dwarf star has oxygen from the Milky Way’s earliest supernovae ...