Milky seas are unusual phenomena which have been noticed by mariners for centuries, but which remain unexplained by scientists. These events are when the surface of the ocean, often from horizon to horizon, glows with a continuous uniform milky light. picked by 2manyusernames 5 months ago

An international team of scientists has discovered seven dwarf galaxies orbiting Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way. picked by braveheart 2 years ago

One of the fastest moving stars ever seen is challenging theories to explain its blistering speed. The cosmic cannonball, a neutron star known as RX J0822-4300, was discovered with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The neutron star is racing out of our Milky Way Galaxy at about 3 million mph (4.8 million kph). Not the same as this one. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

Astronomers have spotted small galaxies near the beginning of time that resemble ancestors of our own galactic home. The tiny galaxies are about one-tenth to one-twentieth the size of the Milky Way and have 40 times fewer stars. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago

A large galaxy could be lurking unseen in our own cosmic backyard, a pair of researchers says. Such a massive object could explain a mysterious gravitational pull on the Milky Way. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

SRON astronomer Floris van der Tak is the first to have observed acidic particulate clouds outside of our own Milky Way galaxy. He did this by focusing the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, located on Hawaii, on two nearby Milky Way galaxies. Astronomers think that acidification inhibits the formation of stars and planets in the dust clouds. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

Scientists are using the giant Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to go prospecting in a rich molecular cloud in our Milky Way Galaxy. They seek to discover new, complex molecules in interstellar space that may be precursors to life. picked by AutumnLotus 2 months ago

Two dwarf galaxies thought to be our Milky Way's longtime companions are actually relative newcomers to our neighborhood that are just passing through. picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

Our Milky Way Galaxy has two distinct parts in its outer reaches that rotate in opposite directions, astronomers announced today. The galaxy has a bulbous core where stars are tightly packed and orbiting rather furiously around the central black hole. Then there's the big flat disk with its spiral arms, also orbiting the galactic center somewhat in the manner of a hurricane's spiral bands. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago

The young building blocks of galaxies similar to the Milky Way have been spotted for the first time by astronomers, giving a tantalizing glimpse of how our stellar backyard may have formed. The discovery of 27 "teenager", or proto-galaxies, is further evidence that galaxies like the Milky Way were created by the clumping of smaller clouds of gas and dust. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

A dazzlingly detailed image released by NASA scientists shows the chaotic conditions in which stars are born and die - in this case in a huge nebula in another neighbourhood of our Milky Way galaxy. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

Legions of tiny black holes created during the big bang may lurk at the centre of the galaxy, creating a prodigious antimatter factory, a new study suggests. The work could explain where the Milky Way's antimatter comes from – one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics. picked by AutumnLotus 7 months ago

For decades, astronomers have pictured our galaxy as sporting four major, spiral arms, however new images effectively sever two appendages, revealing the Milky Way has just two major arms. picked by AutumnLotus 3 months ago

Rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found. New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems. picked by mahler87 6 months ago

More than 800,000 snapshots from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have been stitched together to create a new "coming of age" portrait of stars in our inner Milky Way galaxy. The image depicts an area of sky 120 degrees wide by two degrees tall. High-res zoomable image. picked by AutumnLotus 3 months ago

The shape of the mysterious cloud of antimatter in the central regions of the Milky Way has been revealed by ESA’s orbiting gamma-ray observatory Integral. The unexpectedly lopsided shape is a new clue to the origin of the antimatter. picked by AutumnLotus 7 months ago

For hundreds of years, these galaxies were considered satellites of the Milky Way, gravitationally bound to our home galaxy. New research by Gurtina Besla (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and her colleagues shows that the Magellanic Clouds are recent arrivals on their first visit to the Milky Way's neighborhood. picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

From the billions-and-billions dept. picked by Bornbad 2 years ago

By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theories of star and planet formation, and for the dynamics of our Milky Way. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

A furious rate of star formation discovered in a distant galaxy shows that galaxies in the early universe developed either much faster or in a different way from what astronomers have thought. The galaxy is forming the equivalent of 4,000 Suns a year. This is a thousand times more violent than our own Milky Way galaxy. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago