Astronomers have discovered galaxies that have escaped detection until now, uncovering a missing link in galaxy evolution. The find suggests that we don’t understand galaxy formation as well as we…
Moons abound in our solar system; nearly every planet has at least one. There are many ways moons can form, but one way is that they are born along with…
During the late 1970s, scientists made a rather interesting discovery about the gas giants of the Solar System. Thanks to ongoing observations using improved optics, it was revealed that gas…
Galaxy mergers are not particularly rare, but they are important events. Not only for the galaxies involved, but for scientists trying to piece together how galaxies evolve. Now, astronomers using…
Artist’s impression of the merging galaxies.Illustration: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Scientists have spotted one of the most distant (and therefore the youngest) example of merging galaxies yet observed, according…
There’s a lot going on at the center of our galaxy. A supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A-Star resides there, drawing material in with its inexorable gravitational attraction. In that…
New ALMA observations reveal a never-before-seen disk of cool, interstellar gas wrapped around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. This nebulous disk gives astronomers new…
Astronomers have directly imaged two exoplanets that are gravitationally carving out a wide gap within a planet-forming disk surrounding a young star. While over a dozen exoplanets have been directly…
Astronomers map the substance aluminum monoxide (AlO) in a cloud around a distant young star -- Origin Source I. The finding clarifies some important details about how our solar system,…
On small scales, astronomers understand how stars are born. You start with a nebula — a big cloud of gas and dust — and compress it somehow. Maybe it collides with another…