This luminous orb is the galaxy NGC 4621, better known as Messier 59. As this latter moniker indicates, the galaxy is listed in the famous catalog of deep-sky objects compiled by French comet-hunter Charles Messier in the ...
Astronomy
May 31, 2019
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In the 1930s, it was first noticed that the dynamics of astrophysical objects (galaxies, galaxy clusters and the universe itself) required an invisible and unknown form of mass, known now as dark matter. Strong mass discrepancies ...
Astronomy
May 16, 2019
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121
On April 10, 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) unveiled the first-ever image of a black hole's event horizon, the area beyond which light cannot escape the immense gravity of the black hole. That giant black hole, with ...
Astronomy
Apr 26, 2019
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Using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers have conducted interferometric observations of the elliptical galaxy NGC 3557 to investigate molecular gas emission from this source. Results of these ...
Using data provided by NASA's Chandra spacecraft, astronomers have identified a new unusual ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in the elliptical galaxy Messier 86. The newly found ULX, designated M86 tULX-1, resides some 62,000 ...
Researchers often assume that massive galaxies host supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in their nuclei. In recent years, observers have sought galaxies that might contain an SMBH that is displaced from its equilibrium position. ...
Astronomy
Aug 23, 2018
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59
A glittering host of galaxies populate this rich image taken with ESO's VLT Survey Telescope, a state-of-the-art 2.6-m telescope designed for surveying the sky in visible light. The features of the multitude of galaxies strewn ...
Astronomy
Aug 8, 2018
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192
Galaxies are not static islands of stars—they are dynamic and ever-changing, constantly on the move through the darkness of the Universe. Sometimes, as seen in this spectacular Hubble image of Arp 256, galaxies can collide ...
Astronomy
Mar 8, 2018
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222
As a general rule of thumb, if there is a puzzling phenomenon occurring somewhere deep in outer space, a black hole is often the culprit behind it.
Astronomy
Feb 28, 2018
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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope caught sight of a soft, diffuse-looking galaxy that is probably the aftermath of a long-ago galactic collision. Two spiral galaxies, each perhaps much like the Milky Way, swirled together ...
Astronomy
Feb 26, 2018
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