asteroids, galaxy formation, new discoveries

Hubble Captures 1 Galaxy, 2 Asteroids

At first sight, this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope portrays the sparkling stars of AGC111977, a dwarf galaxy located around 15 million light-years away and visible in the lower left part of the image. Other galaxies appear sprinkled across the frame, along with foreground stars from our own galaxy, the Milky Way. After ...

Troy Oakes

The dwarf galaxy AGC111977.

Scientific ‘Red Flag’ Reveals New Clues About Our Galaxy

Figuring out how much energy permeates the center of the Milky Way — a discovery reported in the July 3 edition of the journal Science Advances — could yield new clues to the fundamental source of our galaxy’s power, said L. Matthew Haffner of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The Milky Way’s nucleus thrums with hydrogen that has been ...

Troy Oakes

Optical Milky Way image.

Mergers Between Galaxies Trigger Activity in Their Core

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) play a major role in galaxy evolution. Astronomers from SRON and RuG have now used a record sample of galaxies to confirm that galaxy mergers have a positive effect on igniting AGNs. They were able to compile about 10 times more pictures of merging galaxies than previous studies by using a ...

Troy Oakes

Two galaxies merging together.

What Happens When the Milky Way Galaxy Crashes Into Andromeda?

It’s amazing to sometimes ponder how the universe came into existence. Most of the physical, chemical, and kinetic forces behind the formation of stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies are beyond our comprehension. However, what we have managed to understand over years of observation and study is that a galaxy is primarily built through collisions ...

Armin Auctor

Two galaxies colliding.

Galaxy Formation Simulated Without Dark Matter

For the first time, researchers from Bonn University and Strasbourg University have simulated the formation of galaxies in a universe that works without dark matter. Instead, they modified Newton’s laws of gravity to simulate this process on the computer.  A galaxy that is created with computer calculations is similar to those that we actually see today ...

Troy Oakes

The simulated formation of galaxies without dark matter.