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.
Astronomers have identified one of the most distant candidate galaxies known to leak ionizing radiation—the same kind of radiation thought to have transformed the early universe during the epoch of reionization.
A new ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has been discovered in the vicinity of Andromeda (M31), the Milky Way's large neighboring galaxy. The new study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics suggests that the galaxy, named And XXXVI, ...
Astronomy
Jun 29, 2026
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The Gaia mission has allowed researchers to understand the motions of stars like never before, even revealing possible interactions between our solar system and nearby stars. Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Nathan ...
Astronomy
Jun 25, 2026
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Nearly every massive galaxy observed hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered that some of these supermassive black holes may even be too big for the galaxy they're found ...
Astronomy
Jun 25, 2026
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Earlier this year, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed observations that mapped 47 million galaxies across 11 billion light-years, allowing astronomers to better evaluate the large-scale structure of ...
This striking pair of galaxies located 80 million light-years from Earth lies in the constellation Leo against a backdrop of distant galaxies. The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3504 is seen on the right, and the spiral galaxy ...
Astronomy
Jun 25, 2026
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For just one day, our dark universe detective, Euclid, turned its gaze toward the light: the extremely bright inner region of our Milky Way galaxy, known as the galactic bulge. This special request came from astronomers who ...
Astronomy
Jun 24, 2026
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Located 12 million light-years away and undergoing rapid star formation, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is a scientifically unique sight to behold, and now NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed previously ...
Astronomy
Jun 23, 2026
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The Bullet Cluster has so far been considered evidence of the existence of dark matter. An international team of researchers has now analyzed new data and current images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). According ...
Astronomy
Jun 19, 2026
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This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy cluster called CL0016+1609, or MACS J0018.5+1626, that is very bright at X-ray wavelengths and is one of the most extensively studied clusters at X-ray and radio wavelengths. ...
Astronomy
Jun 18, 2026
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