New Atlas

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Milky Way still reeling from impact with "ghost galaxy"

Michael Irving June 16, 2019

Last year astronomers discovered a gigantic “ghost” galaxy, named Antlia 2, orbiting the Milky Way. Now, new research led by Rochester University has found that the bizarre galaxy may have been involved in a hit-and-run that left the Milky Way with a wobbly galactic disc.

An artist's rendition of ripples in the outer disc of the Milky Way, which are believed ...

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Mysterious galaxy's missing dark matter may have been found

Michael Irving June 10, 2019

Dark matter is the mysterious substance that’s believed to permeate the universe, and the discovery last year of a galaxy with no dark matter was quite surprising. But now, astronomers have examined the oddball galaxy a bit closer – and found that it’s not so special after all.

The ultra-diffuse galaxy NGC1052-DF2 was previously thought to contain very little dark matter – but a ...

Space

Hubble captures the good side of a stunning, scarred "two-faced" galaxy

Michael Irving May 17, 2019

Hubble has been photographing the cosmos for 30 years now, but it still manages to surprise us with some absolutely breathtaking shots. Case in point, the latest image shows the two-faced galaxy NGC 4485, which still bears the stunning scars of a close call with another galaxy millions of years ago.

The galaxy NGC 4485 appears normal on the left side, but on the right it bears ...

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"Stellar baby boom" may have given birth to half the Milky Way's stars

Michael Irving May 13, 2019

Scientists have been poring over the Gaia galactic census of Milky Way stars for about a year. Now, a team of researchers has found evidence of a “stellar baby boom,” a short period of time in which more than half the stars in the thin disc were born.

Gaia's all-sky-view, showing the clear center of the Milky Way and the galactic disc

Space

Most detailed Hubble image ever captures 265,000 galaxies across the cosmos

Michael Irving May 3, 2019

The Hubble Space Telescope has a knack for making us feel incredibly small. The latest image, named the Hubble Legacy Field, is a mosaic of thousands of exposures over the years and constitutes the largest and most comprehensive image ever put together by the Hubble science team.

The Hubble Legacy Field contains over 265,000 galaxies. Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth and D. Magee ...

Space

Star unlike any found in the Milky Way appears to be an intergalactic intruder

Michael Irving April 30, 2019

Astronomers have discovered a star in the Milky Way that doesn’t belong. Known as J1124+4535, the star has a chemical composition unlike any others ever observed in our home galaxy, suggesting it’s an intergalactic interloper that may have come from a dwarf galaxy swallowed up by the Milky Way.

A computer simulation of a spiral galaxy, like the Milky Way, forming. These simulations suggest that ...

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Gigantic dusty donut around a black hole imaged for the first time

Michael Irving April 5, 2019

Active galactic nuclei are known by different names depending on the viewing angle. Now, for the first time astronomers have directly imaged the last piece of the puzzle that ties them all together – a dusty donut of material that surrounds a supermassive black hole.

An illustration of a torus around an active galactic nucleus, which has been imaged directly for ...

Space

Dark Energy instrument snaps its first shot of the sky

Michael Irving April 3, 2019

The first images from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) were snapped this week. DESI is designed to hunt for clues about dark energy by building a comprehensive 3D map of the sky. On April 1 DESI achieved “first light” with a mesmerizing image of the Whirlpool Galaxy.

The "first light" image taken by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), showing the red light ...

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New galaxy discovered that's light on dark matter

Michael Irving April 1, 2019

In a pair of studies published this week, astronomers have shed new light on dark matter through close observation of a galaxy previously found to have very little of the stuff, while the same team found a new example of a similar oddball galaxy.

The galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 has been found to have very little dark matter

Space

Explore the galactic center as a supermassive black hole in new NASA VR experience

Anthony Wood March 25, 2019

A new NASA VR experience is letting viewers explore the chaotic heart of our galaxy from the perspective of the supermassive black hole lurking at its heart, Sagittarius A*. The video was created from a combination of supercomputer simulations and data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The new video shows massive stars and clouds of cosmic gas interacting with the supermassive black ...