Little telescope spies gigantic galaxy clusters

(Phys.org)—Our solar system, with its colorful collection of planets, asteroids and comets, is a fleck in the grander cosmos. Hundreds of billions of solar systems are thought to reside in our Milky Way galaxy, which is ...

Galaxy collisions

Collisions between galaxies are common. Indeed, most galaxies have probably been involved in one or more encounters during their lifetimes. One example is our own Milky Way, which is bound by gravity to the Andromeda galaxy, ...

'Elephant trunks' in space

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, captured this image of a star-forming cloud of dust and gas, called Sh2-284, located in the constellation of Monoceros. Lining up along the edges of a ...

New data help astronomers explore the hidden Milky Way

(Phys.org) —Today, astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, or SDSS-III – including University of Virginia astronomers – released a new online public data set featuring 60,000 stars that are helping to tell ...

Final curtain for Europe's deep-space telescope

The deep-space telescope Herschel took its final bow on Monday, climaxing a successful four-year mission to observe the birth of stars and galaxies, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

Hidden black hole: Spiral galaxy NGC 3627

(Phys.org)—The spiral galaxy NGC 3627 is located about 30 million light years from Earth. This composite image includes X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope ...

Galaxies in the young cosmos

(Phys.org) -- The universe was born about 13.7 billion years ago in the big bang. The Sun and its system of planets formed about five billion years ago. What happened, then, during that long, intervening stretch of nearly ...

Celebrating Hubble's 32nd birthday with a galaxy grouping

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating its 32nd birthday with a stunning look at an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies, called the Hickson Compact Group 40. This snapshot reflects a special moment ...

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