New Atlas

Space Audio available

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 ...

Space Audio available

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 ...

Space Audio available

Colossal X-ray "chimneys" discovered at center of the Milky Way

Michael Irving March 20, 2019

It's hard to really understand the large-scale structure of the Milky Way. Now, astronomers have peered towards the center of the galaxy using the ESA's X-ray telescope XMM-Newton, and discovered two colossal "chimneys" pumping huge amounts of energy and gas out into intergalactic space.

An artist's impression of two huge "chimneys" spewing energetic particles out of the center of the ...

Space Audio available

Supernova sends "cannonball" pulsar hurtling at intergalactic speeds

Michael Irving March 19, 2019

The universe is full of fascinating stories, and NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has just spotted a doozy. About 10,000 years ago a star went supernova, and the explosion shot the resulting pulsar off like a cannonball, with enough force to send it hurtling out of the galaxy altogether.

The CTB 1 supernova remnant, visible here as a "bubble." The speeding pulsar is a tiny ...

Space

Massive hypervelocity star escaping Milky Way hints at presence of hidden black hole

Anthony Wood March 13, 2019

A team of astronomers has managed to find the origin of an enormous star that is currently barreling out of the Milky Way having escaped from one of our galaxy’s spiral arms. The discovery challenges the theory that such stars come from the galactic center.

NASA graphic showing the structure of the Milky Way

Space Audio available

Astronomers calculate the mass of the entire Milky Way galaxy

Michael Irving March 7, 2019

How heavy is the Milky Way galaxy? A team of astronomers has used data from Hubble and the Gaia satellite to make the most accurate measurement of the mass of the galaxy by studying the motions of star clusters orbiting the Milky Way.

Astronomers have measured the mass of the Milky Way by studying the movements of orbiting clusters ...

Space Audio available

Doomed, rare black hole spotted near the center of the galaxy

Michael Irving March 3, 2019

Black holes tend to fall into two categories: fairly small or supermassive. It’s long been believed that there should be a middle class, and in recent years astronomers have found evidence of these “intermediate mass” black holes. Now a Japanese team has located one near the center of the Milky Way.

Japanese astronomers have discovered a rare type of black hole near the center of the Milky ...

Space Audio available

NASA's newest mission to look for life's ingredients and probe the universe's deep past

Michael Irving February 13, 2019

NASA has selected the newest space mission for its Explorer program: the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx). The spacecraft will search for the ingredients of life in the Milky Way, and peer as far as 10 billion years back in time.

An artist's impression of SPHEREx, the mission NASA has just selected for its Explorers program