News tagged with milky way
Hubble shows Milky Way is destined for head-on collision with Andromeda galaxy
(Phys.org) -- NASA astronomers announced Thursday they can now predict with certainty the next major cosmic event to affect our galaxy, sun, and solar system: the titanic collision of our Milky Way galaxy ...
May 31, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (20) |
35
|
Ghostly gamma-ray beams blast from Milky Way's center
(Phys.org) -- As galaxies go, our Milky Way is pretty quiet. Active galaxies have cores that glow brightly, powered by supermassive black holes swallowing material, and often spit twin jets in opposite directions. ...
May 29, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (11) |
13
|
11.5 billion years old: Stellar archaeology traces Milky Way's history
(Phys.org) -- Unfortunately, stars don't have birth certificates. So, astronomers have a tough time figuring out their ages. Knowing a star's age is critical for understanding how our Milky Way galaxy built ...
May 30, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (17) |
4
|
Hubble spies edge-on beauty
(Phys.org) -- Visible in the constellation of Andromeda, NGC 891 is located approximately 30 million light-years away from Earth. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope turned its powerful wide field Advanced ...
May 21, 2012 |
3.4 / 5 (5) |
16
|
A pinwheel in many colors
(Phys.org) -- This image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, or also known as M101, combines data in the infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-rays from four of NASA's space-based telescopes. This multi-spectral view shows ...
May 25, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
1
Nomads of the galaxy
A recent study proposes the galaxy is crowded with nomad planets adrift in space. If this is the case, nomad planets may play a dynamic role in the universe.
May 23, 2012 |
4 / 5 (5) |
7
Serious blow to dark matter theories? New study finds mysterious lack of dark matter in Sun's neighborhood
(Phys.org) -- The most accurate study so far of the motions of stars in the Milky Way has found no evidence for dark matter in a large volume around the Sun. According to widely accepted theories, the solar ...
Apr 18, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (45) |
164
|
How nature shapes the birth of stars
(Phys.org) -- Using state of the art computer simulations, a team of astronomers from the University of Bonn in Germany have found the first evidence that the way in which stars form depends on their birth ...
May 11, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (6) |
6
|
Researchers say galaxy may swarm with 'nomad planets'
(PhysOrg.com) -- Our galaxy may be awash in homeless planets, wandering through space instead of orbiting a star.
Feb 23, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (23) |
31
|
VISTA views a vast ball of stars
(Phys.org) -- A new image of Messier 55 from ESO's VISTA infrared survey telescope shows tens of thousands of stars crowded together like a swarm of bees. Besides being packed into a relatively small space, ...
May 09, 2012 |
3.7 / 5 (6) |
15
|
Astronomers watch instant replay of powerful stellar eruption
Astronomers are watching the astronomical equivalent of an instant replay of a spectacular outburst from the unstable, behemoth double-star system Eta Carinae, which was initially seen on Earth nearly 170 ...
Feb 15, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (17) |
1
|
How black holes grow: New study indicates they eat binary star partners
A study led by a University of Utah astrophysicist found a new explanation for the growth of supermassive black holes in the center of most galaxies: they repeatedly capture and swallow single stars from pairs ...
Apr 02, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (7) |
4
|
Scientists chart high-precision map of Milky Way's magnetic fields
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) are part of an international team that has pooled their radio observations into a database, producing the highest precision map to date of ...
Feb 03, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (11) |
9
|
Black hole, star collisions may illuminate universe's dark side
Scientists looking to capture evidence of dark matter -- the invisible substance thought to constitute much of the universe -- may find a helpful tool in the recent work of researchers from Princeton University ...
Sep 19, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (12) |
13
|
Our galaxy might hold thousands of ticking 'time bombs'
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the Hollywood blockbuster "Speed," a bomb on a bus is rigged to blow up if the bus slows down below 50 miles per hour. The premise - slow down and you explode - makes for a great action ...
Sep 06, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (22) |
25
|
Milky Way
The Milky Way, or simply the Galaxy, is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies. It is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe.
Its name is a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn translated from the Greek Γαλαξίας (Galaxias), referring to the pale band of light formed by the galactic plane as seen from Earth (see etymology of galaxy). Some sources hold that, strictly speaking, the term Milky Way should refer exclusively to the band of light that the galaxy forms in the night sky, while the galaxy should receive the full name Milky Way Galaxy, or alternatively the Galaxy. However, it is unclear how widespread this convention is, and the term Milky Way is routinely used in either context.
For more information about Milky Way, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
