Milky

Astronomers have made a…

A new survey of the Milky Way has unveiled billions of celestial objects in our galaxy’s plane. The survey was taken using the Dark Energy Camera, which the US Department of Energy built, and it contains a staggering 3.32 billion celestial objects within it. Researchers say that it is arguably the largest catalog of its type ever made. We already knew that the Milky Way contained hundreds of billions of stars but seeing the sheer amount of celestial objects that our galaxy has to hold in an image is…

Two major astronomy research programs, called EMU and PEGASUS, have joined forces to resolve one of the mysteries of our Milky Way: where are all the supernova remnants?A supernova remnant is an expanding cloud of gas and dust marking the last phase in the life of a star, after it has exploded as a supernova. But the number of supernova remnants we have detected so far with radio telescopes is too low.Models predict five times as many, so where are the missing ones?We have combined observations from two of Australia's…

A new study pre-published on the arXiv servers suggests that the Milky Way is missing almost half of its matter. Researchers used the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA), a set of 110 radio dishes in California, to measure the amount of matter in the Milky Way’s halo. The DSA was designed specifically to spot fast radio bursts (FRBs), similar to the bursts we’ve seen coming from deep space. The DSA then uses those bursts to trace them back to their home galaxies. A nice side effect of this, though, is that they can also…

This illustration shows the Milky Way galaxy’s inner and outer halos. A halo is a spherical cloud of stars surrounding a galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)A search for variable stars called RR Lyrae has found some of the most distant stars in the <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>Milky Way</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System, and is named for its…

Scientists discovered the star SMSS1605-1443 in 2018. Upon discovery, they determined that it was perhaps one of the Milky Way’s oldest stars based on its chemical composition. However, it’s underlying nature has remained unknown for the past few years. Now, though, astronomers believe they may have discovered the origins of this star. According to a new study published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, SMSS1605-1443 is in fact a double star, also known as a binary. This was originally thought to not occur in…

Astronomers have detected in the stellar halo that represents the Milky Way's outer limits a group of stars more distant from Earth than any known within our own galaxy — almost halfway to a neighboring galaxy.The researchers said these 208 stars inhabit the most remote reaches of the Milky Way's halo, a spherical stellar cloud dominated by the mysterious invisible substance called dark matter that makes itself known only through its gravitational influence. The furthest of them is 1.08 million light years from Earth. A…

The Milky Way is a spectacular galaxy, not just because it is home to our solar system but also because of its bar-like design. Now, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered barred Milky Way-like galaxies much further back in time than we previously expected to find them. In modern times, around two-thirds of the spiral galaxies we have discovered are “barred.” This means that they have a massive structure that resembles a bar running through their core. This bar is made up of dust and…

We all know our galaxy, the Milky Way, is big. Really big. But, exactly how far out does it extend? Where are the outer limits?Astronomers aren't exactly sure, precisely. However, a study of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster accidentally turned up a population of stars in the outer part of the Milky Way. They may answer those questions.The stars, called RR Lyrae variables, lie in the galaxy's stellar halo. That's a shell of stars and dark matter that extends at least halfway to the Andromeda Galaxy. It's our nearest…

Astronomers have discovered that the Milky Way galaxy’s stellar halo — a cloud of diffuse stars around all galaxies — is zeppelin-shaped and tilted. This artist’s illustration emphasizes the shape of the three-dimensional halo surrounding our galaxy. Credit: Melissa Weiss/Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & SmithsonianA recent study has unveiled the true shape of the diffuse cloud of stars surrounding the disk of our galaxy, known as the stellar halo. Previously thought to be largely spherical, like a beach ball, the…