The find by citizen scientists of at least 40 galaxies in a cluster more than a billion light years away is the astronomical equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
Jupiter had a big influence on how our solar system’s planets formed. New research – led by a high school student – tried to nail down how rare Jupiter analogs really are in other planetary systems.
A new model suggests that elliptical galaxies are more likely to be habitable than spiral galaxies like our own. Does that mean we’re a freak event and elsewhere is teeming with life?
Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute; Amanda Bauer, Australian Astronomical Observatory, and Sarah Brough, Australian Astronomical Observatory
What happens to a galaxy when it runs out of the stuff needed to forge new stars?
The best observations yet of a mysterious gas cloud that was heading for the black hole at the hear of our Milky Way reveal it may have more stellar origins.
A supermassive black hole has been found in an ultracompact dwarf galaxy – the smallest galaxy known to contain such a massive black hole. This finding, published today in Nature, suggests that supermassive…
According to cosmologists, galaxies are joined together by filaments, quite literally. These filaments form the cosmic web and are made of mostly dark matter, many stars and some gas. Observing these filaments…
Galaxies may look pretty and delicate, with their swirls of stars of many colours - but don’t be fooled. At the heart of every galaxy lies a supermassive black hole, including in our own Milky Way. Black…
Amateur astronomers in Russia made a discovery last week any professional would envy - it seems they may have identified the remnants of the ill-fated Soviet Mars 3 lander, 30 years after it lost contact…