Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: galaxy

galaxy stories: 13 news summaries

 32 New Exoplanets Discovered 

New finds signal that cosmos harbors wealth of planets

Oct 20, 09 3:23 AM CDT
(Newser) - European astronomers have discovered 32 new planets in other solar systems, bringing the total of known exoplanets to over 400. The planets—which range in size from five times the size of Earth to five times the size of Jupiter—were found circling a variety of stars. The new discoveries... More »

MORE ABOUT:
planet • Milky Way • exoplanet • galaxy • extrasolar planets • observatory

Slideshow

 New Hubble Images Dazzle 

Refurbished telescope can see further, with more color

Sep 9, 09 1:46 PM CDT
(Newser) - NASA released the first shots from the recently upgraded Hubble Space Telescope today, and the results are spectacular. Thanks to the new imagers installed in May, Hubble can now see farther, with greater clarity and a wider color spectrum, reports NPR. Officially, NASA calls it a new beginning for the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
NASA • Hubble • deep space • galaxy • outer space • Hubble Space Telescope

 Scientists Spot 
 Galaxy 'Cannibalism' 

Andromeda is consuming other galaxies and the Milky Way's on the menu

Sep 3, 09 3:52 AM CDT
(Newser) - The vast Andromeda galaxy has been growing by gobbling up neighboring galaxies, reports the BBC. Astronomers mapping the galaxy—at 2.5 million light years away, the Milky Way's closest neighbor—discovered stars within that they believe to be the remnants of dwarf galaxies consumed by Andromeda. The galaxy is... More »

MORE ABOUT:
astronomy • Milky Way • galaxy • outer space • Andromeda Galaxy • astronomer

(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... More »

MORE ABOUT:
NASA • space • star • sun • black hole • universe • galaxy • space telescope

 Space Blob Stumps Scientists

Cosmic blob from the dawn of time confounds theories on early universe

Apr 23, 09 7:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - A gigantic blob at the edge of the universe is forcing scientists to rethink their ideas on how galaxies form, reports the BBC. The radiation-emitting object 12.9 billion light years away is one of the most distant—and consequently oldest—things ever seen by astronomers, and is much bigger... More »

MORE ABOUT:
astronomy • space • Big Bang • black hole • universe • galaxy • Himiko

Scientists Say Black Hole
Lies at Center of Galaxy

Stars orbit around central nucleus 4M times heavier than sun

Dec 11, 08 5:22 PM CST
(Newser) - A giant black hole sits at the core of our galaxy, say astronomers who participated in a 16-year German study that monitored the movements of 28 stars circling the center of the Milky Way. “Beyond any reasonable doubt,” the stars orbit a core concentration of mass 4 million... More »

MORE ABOUT:
astronomy • deep space • black hole • galaxy

 3-D Map Adds Light Years 
 to Concept of Universe 

Survey used red shift to find relative distances of heavenly bodies

Oct 15, 08 5:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Telescope photographs of the night sky are compelling, but it’s hard to get a feel for the heavens when you’re Earthbound. The recently completed Sloan Digital Sky Survey can help: It is a 3-D map of the area within 2 billion light years of Earth that allows the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
astronomy • space • telescope • digital photography • Milky Way • map • galaxy

Dutch Teacher Discovers Green 'Space Ghost'

Accidental find is hot gas ball reflecting far-off galactic light

Aug 10, 08 2:14 PM CDT
(Newser) - A Dutch schoolteacher earned her moment in the sun by discovering a cosmic ball of gas some have labeled a space “ghost,” NPR reports. Hanny van Arkel, 25, was working as a volunteer with a galaxy-classifying website when she came upon what “looked like a regular galaxy... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Netherlands • black hole • quasars • galaxy • Ghost • teacher • outer space

OPINION

 New Planets Yield 
 Hopes of Life 
 Beyond  

Rocky, Earth-like orbs appear to be out there; might we indeed have company?

Jun 24, 08 1:43 PM CDT
(Newser) - The discovery, announced last week, that rocky, Earth-sized planets appear to be circling sun-sized stars in our own galaxy should thrill the closet Star Trek geek in all of us, Natalie Angier writes in the New York Times. "If planets abound, scientists suspect that life abounds, too, at... More »

MORE ABOUT:
astronomy • space exploration • planet • deep space • extraterrestrial life • Milky Way • galaxy • Kepler spacecraft

 Stargazers Witness
 Birth of Supernova 

Astronomers first ever to see star's explosive death throes

May 22, 08 3:43 AM CDT
(Newser) - A  pair of Princeton astronomers have become the first people ever to witness the explosive death of a star, Space.com reports. The pair were observing another supernova in its later stages when they happened to spot a huge burst of X-rays 90 million light years away. Astronomers believe their... More »

MORE ABOUT:
NASA • astronomy • star • supernova • galaxy

 Youngest
 Supernova Discovered 

Exploding star found in Milky Way

May 15, 08 3:55 AM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists have discovered the remains of the youngest exploding star, or supernova, ever seen in the Milky Way, shedding new light on the life cycles of stars. The baby supernova G1.9+0.3 is a mere 140 years old, reports National Geographic. Supernovas are a vital component of galaxy development... More »

MORE ABOUT:
astronomy • star • Milky Way • astrophysics • galaxy • supernovas • SNRs • Large Magellanic Cloud • Cassiopeia A

Gates Sees Stars, Donates $10M to 'Scope

Joins 2nd Microsoft mogul in backing plan to photograph heavens

Jan 5, 08 4:05 PM CST
(Newser) - Bill Gates and Bill Simonyi—space geeks and Microsoft billionaires both—are donating $30 million to the Chilean-based Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the Guardian reports. The $400 million endeavor, scheduled to be working in 2015, will snap pics of the sky with a 3,200 megapixel digital camera every 15... More »

MORE ABOUT:
astronomy • Bill Gates • telescope • Chile • universe • International Space Station • galaxy • Cerro Pachon • Andes Mountains • Large Synoptic Survey Telescope • Charles Simonyi • Tucson, Arizona

Hidden Galaxies Come to Light

Scientists discover star systems obscured by quasars

Sep 24, 07 12:15 PM CDT
(Newser) - Astronomers have added 14 “invisible galaxies” to their map of the heavens, thanks to an imaginative breakthrough and a massive telescope. Researchers realized that some galaxies might be hidden by the bright lights of quasars behind them, so they scanned quasar data for “dips” where those lights might... More »

MORE ABOUT:
astronomy • space exploration • space • deep space • quasars • galaxy

13 Stories


from our news partners