https://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. The Milky Way's galactic bulge, the bulbous region that surrounds the galactic center, contains a dense collection of stars, planets, and other free-floating objects. This region has been studied for decades with numerous ground-based and space-based telescopes, including NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hubble-survey-roman-future-milky.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 15:20:01 EDT news697723621 An international team of astronomers has employed the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to perform high-resolution observations of the Needle galaxy. Results of the new observational campaign, presented April 15 on the arXiv preprint server, provide more insights into the properties of molecular gas in this galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-alma-reveals-giant-molecular-clouds.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:20:01 EDT news696502546 By analyzing the data from the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PandAS), European astronomers have discovered a new satellite of the Andromeda galaxy. The newfound object, which received the designation Andromeda XXXVI, appears to be an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy. The finding is reported in a paper published March 30 on the arXiv preprint server . https://phys.org/news/2026-04-astronomers-andromeda-xxxvi-ultra-faint.html Astronomy Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:10:01 EDT news694706609 A recently detected flash of energy appears to have emanated from the wreckage of colliding galaxies, according to an international team of astronomers led by Penn State scientists. The burst, known as GRB 230906A, was likely caused by the collision of two neutron stars hundreds of millions of years ago and is now shedding light on how the universe creates some of its heaviest elements. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-strange-cosmic-colliding-galaxies-heavy.html Astronomy Tue, 10 Mar 2026 10:00:09 EDT news692353098 Astronomers have watched a dying star fail to explode as a supernova, instead collapsing into a black hole. The remarkable sighting is the most complete observational record ever made of a star's transformation into a black hole, allowing astronomers to construct a comprehensive physical picture of the process. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-supernova-clearest-view-star-collapsing.html Astronomy Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:16 EST news690123883 There is no measurement that can directly observe the wave function of a quantum mechanical system, but the wave function is still enormously useful as its (complex) square represents the probability density of the system or elements of the system. But for a confined system, the wave function can be inferred. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-quantum-extent-molecule-confined-nanodroplet.html General Physics Thu, 29 Jan 2026 09:16:31 EST news688900547 Computer simulations carried out by astronomers from the University of Groningen in collaboration with researchers from Germany, France and Sweden show that most of the (dark) matter beyond the Local Group of galaxies (which includes the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy) must be organized in an extended plane. Above and below this plane are large voids. The observed motions of nearby galaxies and the joint masses of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy can only be properly explained with this "flat" mass distribution. The research, led by Ph.D. graduate Ewoud Wempe and Professor Amina Helmi, is published in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-milky-embedded-large-scale-sheet.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Jan 2026 15:20:30 EST news688749602 By analyzing the data from ESA's Gaia satellite, Chinese astronomers have investigated the structure of a nearby open cluster known as NGC 752. The new study identified four substructures and delivered evidence for mass segregation in this cluster. The findings were presented Jan. 12 on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-gaia-reveals-substructures-cluster-ngc.html Astronomy Tue, 20 Jan 2026 08:00:01 EST news688104298 Galaxy clusters are formed by a dense packing of many galaxies, making them the most massive structures in the universe. Their progenitors, protoclusters, show these galaxies in their infancy, offering a window to study how they all formed. This early "settlement" of galaxies will eventually evolve into a sprawling metropolis by the present day. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-cosmic-lens-reveals-hyperactive-cradle.html Astronomy Thu, 08 Jan 2026 08:41:36 EST news687084061 Astronomers have created a detailed forecast of where they expect to observe future stellar explosions in a nearby galaxy, opening a new window into how exploding stars shape the cosmos. Focusing on M33, a spiral galaxy about 2.7 million light‑years away, this research combined new maps of cold atomic hydrogen gas from the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) with millimeter‑wave observations of molecular gas from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). https://phys.org/news/2026-01-stars-die-beaten-path.html Astronomy Wed, 07 Jan 2026 11:05:28 EST news687006175 Astronomers from Cardiff University, UK, have employed the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) to explore the nearby Andromeda galaxy. Results of the observational campaign, published December 27 on the pre-print server arXiv, yield important insights into the molecular cloud system of this galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-astronomers-molecular-cloud-atlas-nearby.html Astronomy Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:20:55 EST news686913576 Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has observed an elliptical galaxy known as NGC 4486B. Results of the observational campaign, published Dec. 16 on the arXiv preprint server, deliver important insights into the properties of the double nucleus of this galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-astronomers-explore-nucleus-galaxy-ngc.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Dec 2025 09:30:01 EST news685685224 Professor Woong-bae Zee of the College of Liberal Studies at Sejong University has revealed that a galaxy does not possess only a single evolutionary pathway; instead, depending on the nature of its neighboring galaxy, it can exhibit two entirely different "faces of evolution." The work is published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-dual-impact-stellar-bars-star.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:50:01 EST news685629630 Clues about how galaxies like our Milky Way form and evolve and why their stars show surprising chemical patterns have been revealed by a new study. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-cosmic-gas-collisions-milky-chemical.html Astronomy Mon, 08 Dec 2025 06:30:05 EST news684397772 A cosmic dance could be the future of the Milky Way as it tracks a course to collide with neighboring galaxies, a University of Queensland survey has found. The paper is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-dwarf-galaxies-milky-future.html Astronomy Mon, 11 Aug 2025 08:40:03 EDT news674120401 Astronomers have discovered potentially the most massive black hole ever detected. The cosmic behemoth is close to the theoretical upper limit of what is possible in the universe and is 10,000 times heavier than the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-billion-solar-masses-cosmic-horseshoe.html Astronomy Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:22:04 EDT news673788121 The Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 (M31), is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way at a distance of about 2.5 million light-years. Astronomers use Andromeda to understand the structure and evolution of our own spiral, which is much harder to do since Earth is embedded inside the Milky Way. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-nasa-views-galactic-neighbor-andromeda.html Astronomy Thu, 26 Jun 2025 06:59:04 EDT news670139942 Astronomers have surveyed massive, dense star factories, unlike any found in the Milky Way, in a large number of galaxies across the local universe. The findings provide a rare glimpse into processes shaping galaxies in the very early universe and possibly the Milky Way a few billion years from now. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-belly-beast-massive-clumps-reveal.html Astronomy Wed, 11 Jun 2025 16:01:13 EDT news668876463 For years, astronomers have predicted a dramatic fate for our galaxy: a head-on collision with Andromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbor. This merger—expected in about 5 billion years—has become a staple of astronomy documentaries, textbooks and popular science writing. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-astronomers-thought-milky-doomed-andromeda.html Astronomy Sat, 07 Jun 2025 13:40:01 EDT news668176742 Scientists from Helsinki, Durham and Toulouse universities used data from NASA's Hubble and the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescopes to simulate how the Milky Way and Andromeda will evolve over the next 10 billion years. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-encounters-galactic-kind-simulations-milky.html Astronomy Mon, 02 Jun 2025 11:00:01 EDT news668074681 The largest sample of galaxy groups ever detected has been presented by a team of international astronomers using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in an area of the sky called COSMOS Web. The study marks a major milestone in extragalactic astronomy, providing unprecedented insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies and the large-scale structure of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-astronomers-largest-sample-galaxies-billion.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Apr 2025 11:00:04 EDT news664717441 The Andromeda galaxy is surrounded by a constellation of dwarf galaxies that are arranged in a highly lopsided manner. Analysis of cosmological simulations published in Nature Astronomy reveal that this degree of asymmetry is only found in 0.3% of similar systems, painting Andromeda as a striking outlier in the current cosmological paradigm. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-satellite-galaxies-awry-andromeda-asymmetrical.html Astronomy Fri, 11 Apr 2025 08:48:03 EDT news663580081 A Michigan State University researcher saw X-rays coming from a black hole using the NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory telescope. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-black-hole-variability-supermassive-andromeda.html Astronomy Thu, 03 Apr 2025 12:33:03 EDT news662902381 A discovery made by a team led by researchers at the University of Michigan tugs at the seams of some key cosmic lessons we thought we had learned from our own galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-small-faint-unexpected-lot-ways.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:00:01 EDT news660823141 Located 2.5 million light-years away, the majestic Andromeda galaxy appears to the naked eye as a faint, spindle-shaped object roughly the angular size of the full moon. What backyard observers don't see is a swarm of nearly three dozen small satellite galaxies circling the Andromeda galaxy, like bees around a hive. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-hubble-bird-eye-view-andromeda.html Astronomy Thu, 27 Feb 2025 13:42:43 EST news659886151 An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new dwarf galaxy, which they have named Pegasus VII. The newfound galaxy, which lies about 2.4 million light years away, was identified in the Ultraviolet Near-Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS). The discovery was detailed in a research paper published Feb. 13 on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-dwarf-galaxy-halo-andromeda.html Astronomy Tue, 25 Feb 2025 08:30:01 EST news659637104 A bouquet of thousands of stars in bloom has arrived. This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star-forming region called 30 Doradus. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-nasa-telescopes-stellar-bouquet-valentine.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:24:56 EST news658599892 Enabled by supercomputing, University of Pretoria (UP) researchers have led an international team of astronomers that has provided deeper insight into the entire life cycle (birth, growth and death) of giant radio galaxies, which resemble "cosmic fountains"—jets of superheated gas that are ejected into near-empty space from their spinning supermassive black holes. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-supercomputer-simulations-giant-radio-galaxy.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Feb 2025 13:05:58 EST news658501552 In the years following the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have tallied over 1 trillion galaxies in the universe. But only one galaxy stands out as the most important nearby stellar island to our Milky Way—the magnificent Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31). It can be seen with the naked eye on a very clear autumn night as a faint cigar-shaped object roughly the apparent angular diameter of our moon. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-panorama-andromeda-galaxy-unveils-hundreds.html Astronomy Thu, 16 Jan 2025 16:19:43 EST news656266778 Looking halfway across the observable universe and expecting to see individual stars is considered a non-starter in astronomy, a bit like raising a pair of binoculars at the moon in hopes of making out individual grains of dust inside its craters. Thanks to a cosmic quirk of nature, however, an international team of astronomers did just that. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-treasure-trove-unseen-stars-dragon.html Astronomy Mon, 06 Jan 2025 08:44:03 EST news655375432