Galaxies are gravitationally bound, large-scale astrophysical systems composed primarily of dark matter, stars, stellar remnants, gas, and dust, often embedded in extended dark matter halos. They exhibit diverse morphologies, including spiral, elliptical, and irregular types, and span mass scales from roughly 10⁷ to over 10¹² solar masses. Their internal dynamics are governed by gravity and angular momentum distribution, with baryonic components organized into disks, bulges, and halos, and frequently hosting central supermassive black holes. Galaxies are fundamental units of cosmic structure formation, participating in hierarchical assembly, mergers, and interactions within larger environments such as groups, clusters, and filaments of the cosmic web.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has inspected a distant galaxy designated MACS0416_Y1. Results of the observations, presented Nov. 11 on the arXiv pre-print ...
All motion is relative. That simple fact makes tracking the motion of distant objects outside our galaxy particularly challenging. For example, there has been a debate among astronomers for decades about the path that one ...
Astronomy
Nov 18, 2025
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Using the Two-meter Twin Telescope (TTT3), Spanish astronomers have conducted deep optical imaging of an isolated dwarf galaxy known as NGC 6789. Results of the new observations, presented November 10 on the arXiv preprint ...
Quasars acting as strong gravitational lenses are among the rarest finds in astronomy. Out of nearly 300,000 quasars cataloged in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, only twelve candidates were identified, and just three confirmed. ...
Astronomy
Nov 17, 2025
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Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe, with each containing hundreds or even thousands of galaxies. When two of these giants collide, they send powerful shock waves through one another, ...
Astronomy
Nov 14, 2025
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The ESA's Euclid space telescope has been in space for just over a year, investigating some of the deepest mysteries of the cosmos. By observing cosmic structures up to a distance of 10 billion light-years, the observatory ...
Astronomy
Nov 13, 2025
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The discovery of a superheated star factory that forms stars 180 times faster than our own Milky Way could help solve a long-standing puzzle about how galaxies grew so quickly in the early universe.
Astronomy
Nov 12, 2025
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An international team of astronomers has employed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a distant galaxy designated SXDF-NB1006-2. As a result, they found that SXDF-NB1006-2 is a young starburst galaxy that experiences ...
At the heart of the Milky Way, just 27,000 light-years from Earth, there is a supermassive black hole with a mass of more than 4 million suns. Nearly all galaxies contain a supermassive black hole, and many of them are much ...
Astronomy
Nov 4, 2025
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For the first time, scientists have the calculations and simulations to explain mysterious flashes from the galaxy OJ 287. Roughly twice every 12 years, from 3.5 billion light years away, the light equivalent of 1 trillion ...
Astronomy
Oct 29, 2025
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