Space Blob Stumps Scientists

(NEWSER) - A monstrous black hole near the center of a distant galaxy is sucking up stars, gas and dust, and spitting out baby stars, NASA scientists have discovered. The black hole is 100 million times the mass of the sun, reports the Telegraph. It lies at the center of a galaxy 50 million light years away known as NGC-1097, and has been photographed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in California. More»

Scientists spot unexpected void a billion light years wide

(NEWSER) - Astronomers have discovered a mysterious gigantic hole in the universe, reports Space.com. Unlike black holes, created by super dense material, this hole is devoid of matter. It measures nearly a billion light years wide and is 10 billion light years from earth. The hole was discovered by examining input from the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico and satellite radiation readings. More»

And it has a lot of planets

(NEWSER) - What does the Milky Way look like, from outside the Milky Way? It seems like an impossible question to answer, but astronomers found a way—and discovered in the process that the Milky Way is, as one might have guessed, white. "If you looked at new spring snow, which has a fine grain size, about an hour after dawn or an hour before sunset, you'd see the same spectrum of light that an alien astronomer in another galaxy would see looking at the Milky Way," one astronomer explains to the BBC . More»

Remains of early star a 'Holy Grail' of astronomy

(NEWSER) - Astronomers believe they have spotted the remains of one of the universe's very first stars—a "missing link" between the Big Bang and today's universe. The gas cloud left behind when the star exploded more than 13 billion years ago was illuminated by light emitted from a quasar, the BBC reports. Researchers believe the cloud, which contains elements in proportions very different to those found in new stars, will help them learn much more about the universe's "Dark Ages" before the first stars formed. More»

'Billions of Earths' may orbit vast number of newly spotted stars

(NEWSER) - The known universe just got a lot more crowded. Astronomers studying distant, elliptical galaxies say they spotted many more red dwarf stars than anticipated, suggesting that the number of stars in the universe is triple earlier estimates, the Daily Mail reports. The researchers now believe there are three septillion stars out there: a three followed by 24 zeroes. More»