http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- A galaxy with a combination of characteristics never seen before is giving astronomers a tantalizing peek at processes they believe played key roles in the growth of galaxies and clusters of galaxies early in the history of the Universe. http://phys.org/news233497709.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:28:39 EST news233497709 (PhysOrg.com) -- Arp 274, also known as NGC 5679, is a system of three galaxies that appear to be partially overlapping in the image, although they may be at somewhat different distances. The spiral shapes of two of these galaxies appear mostly intact. The third galaxy (to the far left) is more compact, but shows evidence of star formation. http://phys.org/news233486664.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:50:01 EST news233486664 For almost 20 years astrophysicists have been trying to recreate the formation of spiral galaxies such as our Milky Way realistically. Now astrophysicists from the University of Zurich present the world's first realistic simulation of the formation of our home galaxy together with astronomers from the University of California at Santa Cruz. The new results were partly calculated on the computer of the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS) and show, for instance, that there has to be stars on the outer edge of the Milky Way. http://phys.org/news233484749.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:53:02 EST news233484749 (PhysOrg.com) -- ESO's Very Large Telescope has taken a striking image of a beautiful yet peculiar pair of galaxies nicknamed The Eyes. The larger of these, NGC 4438, was once a spiral galaxy but has become badly deformed by collisions with other galaxies in the last few hundred million years. This picture is the first to come out of ESO's Cosmic Gems programme, an initiative in which ESO has granted dedicated observing time for outreach purposes. http://phys.org/news233394193.html Space & Earth Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:46:33 EST news233394193 (PhysOrg.com) -- Those aren't insects trapped in a spider's web -- they're stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, lying between us and another spiral galaxy called IC 342. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured this picture in infrared light, revealing the galaxy's bright patterns of dust. http://phys.org/news230443793.html Space & Earth Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:10:57 EST news230443793 (PhysOrg.com) -- The majority of 'elliptical' galaxies are not spherical but disc-shaped, resembling spiral galaxies such as our own Milky Way with the gas and dust removed, new observations suggest. http://phys.org/news227770886.html Space & Earth Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:41:55 EST news227770886 (PhysOrg.com) -- ESO astronomers have used the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope to capture an image of NGC 6744. This impressive spiral galaxy lies about 30 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). But this view could almost be a picture postcard of our own Milky Way, taken and sent by an extragalactic friend, as this galaxy closely resembles our own. http://phys.org/news226060403.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 Jun 2011 06:00:01 EST news226060403 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers in Hawaii have plucked unprecedented details from the life of an early galaxy using an unusually lucid gravitational lens coupled with the powerful 10-meter Keck II Telescope on Mauna Kea. http://phys.org/news225614394.html Space & Earth Thu, 26 May 2011 07:50:02 EST news225614394 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Meathook Galaxy, or NGC 2442, has a dramatically lopsided shape. One spiral arm is tightly folded in on itself and host to a recent supernova, while the other, dotted with recent star formation, extends far out from the nucleus. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope have captured two contrasting views of this asymmetric spiral galaxy. http://phys.org/news223713789.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 May 2011 07:43:48 EST news223713789 The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, completed its first science flight Wednesday, April 6, using the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT) scientific instrument. GREAT is a high-resolution far-infrared spectrometer that finely divides and sorts light into component colors for detailed analysis. http://phys.org/news221479983.html Space & Earth Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:40:01 EST news221479983 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers predict that large spiral galaxies, like our Milky Way, have hundreds of satellite galaxies orbiting around them. While a few satellites are visible, like the Magellanic Clouds, many other galaxies are too dim to see. Scientists suspect that these faint satellite galaxies are primarily comprised of mysterious “dark matter,” which makes up 85 percent of all matter in the universe and so far remains undetected. http://phys.org/news220170095.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:22:03 EST news220170095 (PhysOrg.com) -- Spiral galaxy NGC 4151 is dubbed the "Eye of Sauron" for its similarity to the malevolent eye in "The Lord of the Rings." http://phys.org/news219046526.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Mar 2011 06:16:27 EST news219046526 This image of NGC 247, taken by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile, reveals the fine details of this highly inclined spiral galaxy and its rich backdrop. Astronomers say this highly tilted orientation, when viewed from Earth, explains why the distance to this prominent galaxy was previously overestimated. http://phys.org/news218278986.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:03:27 EST news218278986 (PhysOrg.com) -- Recent data for gas rich galaxies precisely match predictions of a modified theory of gravity know as MOND according to a new analysis by University of Maryland Astronomy Professor Stacy McGaugh. This -- the latest of several successful MOND predictions -- raises new questions about accuracy of the reigning cosmological model of the universe, writes McGaugh in a paper to be published in March in Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news217668221.html Physics Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:24:34 EST news217668221 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of astronomers has identified for the first time a thick stellar disc in the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. http://phys.org/news217007726.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:04:13 EST news217007726 (PhysOrg.com) -- Nebulae are enormous clouds of dust and gas occupying the space between the stars. Some have pretty names to match their good looks, for example the Rose nebula, while others have much more utilitarian names. http://phys.org/news216660408.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:27:46 EST news216660408 (PhysOrg.com) -- Just in time for Valentine's Day comes a new image of a ring -- not of jewels -- but of black holes. http://phys.org/news216500384.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:00:39 EST news216500384 The new observing instrument VIRUS-W, built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and the University Observatory Munich, saw "first light" on 10th November at the Harlan J. Smith Telescope of the McDonald observatory in Texas. Its first images of a spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away are an impressive confirmation of the capabilities of the instrument, which can determine the motion of stars in near-by galaxies to a precision of a few kilometers per second. http://phys.org/news215261927.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:59:58 EST news215261927 This image by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a dramatic view of the spiral galaxy M51, dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy. http://phys.org/news214593382.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:16:29 EST news214593382 (PhysOrg.com) -- Planet X, an often-sought 10th planet, is so far a no-show, but Sukanya Chakrabarti has high hopes for finding what might be called Galaxy X – a dwarf galaxy that she predicts orbits our Milky Way Galaxy. http://phys.org/news214143691.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:30:05 EST news214143691 A strange, glowing green cloud of gas that has mystified astronomers since its discovery in 2007 has been studied by Hubble. The cloud of gas is lit up by the bright light of a nearby quasar, and shows signs of ongoing star formation. http://phys.org/news213898276.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:11:27 EST news213898276 (PhysOrg.com) -- This collage of galaxies from NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, showcases the many "flavors" that galaxies come in, from star-studded spirals to bulging ellipticals to those paired with other companion galaxies. The WISE team put this collage together to celebrate the anniversary of the mission's launch on Dec. 14, 2009. http://phys.org/news211798751.html Space & Earth Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:59:22 EST news211798751 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have found a stunning burst of star formation that beams out as much infrared light as an entire galaxy. The collision of two spiral galaxies has triggered this explosion, which is cloaked by dust that renders its stars nearly invisible in other wavelengths of light. http://phys.org/news209727135.html Space & Earth Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:32:30 EST news209727135 Using the Subaru Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam) in their observations of the Coma Cluster, researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Hiroshima University, the University of Tokyo, and other institutes have discovered 14 galaxies accompanied by extended, ionized hydrogen clouds. http://phys.org/news209639358.html Space & Earth Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:09:49 EST news209639358 With the help of the army of volunteers working on the Galaxy Zoo 2 'citizen science' project an international team of scientists led by a Portsmouth astrophysicist may have discovered what is killing spiral galaxies. http://phys.org/news208610340.html Space & Earth Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:19:12 EST news208610340 Although dark matter is inherently difficult to observe, an understanding of its properties (even if not its nature) allows astronomers to predict where its effects should be felt. The current understanding is that dark matter helped form the first galaxies by providing gravitational scaffolding in the early universe. These galaxies were small and collapsed to form the larger galaxies we see today. As galaxies grew large enough to shred incoming satellites and their dark matter, much of the dark matter should have been deposited in a flat structure in spiral galaxies which would allow such galaxies to form dark components similar to the disk and halo. However, a new study aimed at detecting the Milky Way‘s dark disk have come up empty. http://phys.org/news208515611.html Space & Earth Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:00:42 EST news208515611 Six spectacular spiral galaxies are seen in a clear new light in images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The pictures were taken in infrared light, using the impressive power of the HAWK-I camera, and will help astronomers understand how the remarkable spiral patterns in galaxies form and evolve. http://phys.org/news207392692.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:05:07 EST news207392692 Though the universe is chock full of spiral-shaped galaxies, no two look exactly the same. This face-on spiral galaxy, called NGC 3982, is striking for its rich tapestry of star birth, along with its winding arms. http://phys.org/news206720383.html Space & Earth Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:20:14 EST news206720383 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new image taken with the powerful HAWK-I camera on ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile shows the beautiful barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 in infrared light. NGC 1365 is a member of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, and lies about 60 million light-years from Earth. http://phys.org/news204366868.html Space & Earth Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:34:49 EST news204366868 ESO has released a spectacular new image of NGC 300, a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way, and located in the nearby Sculptor Group of galaxies. Taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, this 50-hour exposure reveals the structure of the galaxy in exquisite detail. NGC 300 lies about six million light-years away and appears to be about two thirds the size of the full Moon on the sky. http://phys.org/news203156685.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:25:03 EST news203156685