The Milky Way

The disk of hot plasma surrounding Sagittarius A* – the Milky Way’s central black hole – constantly flickers and bubbles, as shown in this artist’s illustration. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralph Crawford (STScI)

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is not resting – it is constantly bubbling.

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Long-term James Webb observations reveal dynamic changes in the plasma disk surrounding Sagittarius A*
A vast spiral galaxy alongside the Milky Way for a scale comparison of the universe. Credit: Bagchi and Ray et al/Hubble Space Telescope

Monstrous jets from black hole in spiral galaxy may foretell Milky Way's terrifying future

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A giant spiral galaxy with powerful jets from a black hole has shocked scientists, because it shows that even galaxies like ours can release dangerous radiation at some point.
This illustration shows a reconstruction of what the Firefly Galaxy looked like about 600 million years after the Big Bang without the stretching and distortion caused by gravitational lensing. It is based on images and data from the web. Credit: ASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Guillaume Desprez (Saint Mary's University)

Webb Telescope Discovers Milky Way's Ancient Twin Twinkling from Cosmic Dawn

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The "Firefly" galaxy, discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope, existed just 600 million years after the Big Bang—with a mass similar to the young Milky Way. Gravitational lensing enabled a seamless observation
: First image: Researchers led by astronomers from the University of Michigan have discovered the smallest and faintest galaxy (encircled by a white ellipse) orbiting the Andromeda galaxy. Credit: CFHT/MegaCam/PAndAS (Principal Investigator: Alan McConaughey; Image Processing: Marcus Arias) Second image: Map of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and its satellite galaxies, with the newly discovered galaxy, Andromeda XXXV, clearly highlighted. Credit: JM Arias et al. Astrophys. J. Lett. (2025)

Mysterious Galaxy "Andromeda XXXV" Subverts the Rules of Galactic Evolution

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Astronomers from the University of Michigan have revealed the smallest and faintest galaxy yet discovered around the Andromeda Galaxy, and their discovery raises new questions about the formation and survival of dwarf galaxies.
Artist's illustration of the SPHEREx spacecraft. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA launches SPHEREx, a space telescope that may rewrite the story of the universe's origins

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The SPHEREx telescope will create the most colorful map of the entire sky ever. Launching this weekend from Vandenberg Space Center in California, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
The artist's concept shows stars near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Each has a colored trail indicating its speed—the longer and redder the trail, the faster the star. NASA scientists recently discovered a candidate for an extremely fast star, depicted near the center of the image, accompanied by an orbiting planet. If confirmed, this pair would break the speed record for a known extrasolar planetary system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)

NASA detects star and planet flying at record speeds of at least 540 kilometers per second

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The discovery of an extrasolar planet system at an unimaginable speed poses new research challenges in studying galaxy dynamics and the structure of intergalactic space.
Space Exploration Podcast with Professor Reinhard Ganzel. Photo: Tel Aviv University Spokesperson

Podcast: The Dark Secret of the Milky Way According to Nobel Prize Winner Prof. Reinhard Ganzel

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The Tel Aviv "360" podcast series is proud to host Nobel Prize winner in Physics (2020), Prof. Reinhard Ganzel, on the dark secret of the Milky Way. (English)
Stars in the Milky Way's thin central disk (the brightest region in this image from the Gaia spacecraft) contain more planets than stars located above and below this plane.

Galactic chaos at cosmic noon hinders planet formation in the Milky Way

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Peak star formation period, period of galactic chaos
A swirling galaxy with a GD-1 star stream and a dark matter halo. The illustration was created using DALEE and is not a scientific image.

Dark matter solves the mystery of the Milky Way's stellar streams

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New study suggests that a dense subhalo of self-interacting dark matter is responsible for the bulge and gap formations of the GD-1 stellar stream, challenging dark matter theories
The black hole of our Milky Way as seen in polarized light. Astronomers have for the first time been able to measure polarity, a hallmark of magnetic fields, so close to the rim of Sagittarius A*. The lines added to the image indicate the direction of polarization, which is related to the magnetic field around the shadow of the black hole. Credit: EHT Collaboration

Strong magnetic fields surround the Milky Way's central black hole

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The antenna galaxies are in the process of collisions. Credit: NASA

How cosmic collisions created the largest galaxies in the universe

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The study suggests that these galaxies were formed from large flows of cold gas and collisions between galaxies in the early universe, which led to the formation of stars at an extremely fast rate
A white dwarf orbits a rapidly spinning neutron star. The image was prepared using DALEE and is not a scientific image

716 revolutions per second: the fastest spinning neutron star in the Milky Way

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Using a telescope on the International Space Station, researchers have discovered a neutron star in the Milky Way that rotates at an incredible 716 times per second - among the fastest ever discovered
This collage shows a small selection of regions of the Milky Way captured as part of a map created from the most detailed infrared wavelength imaging of our galaxy. Here you can see, from left to right and from top to bottom: NGC 3576, NGC 6357, Messia 17, NGC 6188, Messia 22 and NGC 3603. All are clouds of gas and dust in which stars are formed, with the exception of Messia 22, which is a very dense group of ancient stars. Photo: European Southern Observatory ESO

The most detailed infrared map of the Milky Way has been published

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The images were taken with ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope (VISTA) in Chile and its VIRCAM infrared camera
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia satellite reveals the Large Magellanic Cloud in spectacular detail, using radiation mapping instead of photography to show its bright, massive stars and prominent star-forming regions, such as Region 30 Degas. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC.

The Large Magellanic Cloud: Star mapping changes our view of a nearby galaxy

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The European Space Agency's Gaia satellite creates a precise radiation map of the Large Magellanic Cloud, showing the massive stars and prominent star-forming regions
The milky way is used by the dung beetle for navigation at night. Image: University of South Australia

Innovative artificial intelligence sensor draws inspiration from dung beetles for night navigation using the Milky Way

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Dung beetles use the milky way at night to navigate. Engineers used the same technique to develop an artificial intelligence sensor for low-light navigation

Astronomers have discovered potential dark matter objects in space using pulsars

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These pulsars—neutron stars that rotate and emit beacon-like beams of radio waves that scan space—have been used to detect mysterious hidden masses.
A supernova explosion. Illustration: depositphotos.com

The unexpected revival of supernova 1181 

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Supernova 1181, produced by the dramatic collision of two white dwarf stars, was studied using a combination of historical records and modern astronomy. The remains, now identified in the constellation Cassiopeia, reveal a complex structure with
A simulation of a possible explanation for the speed of an L substar named CWISE J124909+362116.0 shows it as part of a binary star pair that ended in a supernova explosion of the white star. Credit: Adam Makarenko / WM Keck Observatory

An extremely fast star has been discovered speeding through the Milky Way at a speed of 2.1 million km/h

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The planet was discovered thanks to the efforts of 80 participants in a citizen science project called "Rear Worlds: Planet 9" and a team of astronomers from all over the United States
Simulation of a smooth halo of stars around the Milky Way. Figure: ESA

Gaia: The Milky Way's last major collision happened surprisingly recently

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An artist's rendering of the planet SPECULOOS-3 b orbiting its sun. The planet is the size of Earth, while its sun is slightly larger than Jupiter, but much more massive. Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH

Discovery of an Earth-sized planet orbiting the supercold dwarf star SPECULOOS-3

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The SPECULOOS project revealed the existence of an Earth-sized planet around SPECULOOS-3, a nearby star similar in size to Jupiter and twice as cold as our Sun
This image shows the sky goddess Nut, covered in stars, held aloft by her father, Shu, and towering over her brother with her back to the earth. On the left the rising sun (the falcon-headed god Re) sails up Nut's leg. On the right the setting sun sails down its arms to the outstretched arms of Osiris, who will recreate the sun in the underworld during the night. Credit: EA Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. 2 (Methuen & Co., 1904).

Secrets of the stars: Scientists reveal the hidden role of the Milky Way in ancient Egyptian mythology

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New research reveals how the Milky Way emphasized the role of Nut, the Egyptian sky goddess
Solidifying white dwarfs. Credit: The Science website via DALEE

Challenging the Cosmos: White Dwarfs That Aren't Completely Dead

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According to the new paper, in some white dwarfs, the dense plasma in the interior doesn't simply freeze from the inside out. Instead, the solid crystals that form upon freezing are less dense than the liquid, and therefore want to float, then push
An amusing representation of the TOI-1136 system if each of the bodies in the system were a duck or a duckling. Credit: Rae Holcomb/University of California at Irvine

The evolution of planets is revealed in a distant solar system

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A newly discovered solar system with six confirmed extrasolar planets and a possible seventh increases astronomers' knowledge of star formation and evolution
This image, showing an elliptical galaxy (left) and a spiral galaxy (right) includes nearby AA light from the James Webb Space Telescope and UV light seen from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Rogier Windhorst (ASU), William Keel ( University of Alabama), Stuart Wyithe (University of Melbourne), JWST PEARLS Team, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Explanation of a strange cosmic phenomenon: astrophysicists discovered why there are no spiral galaxies in our supergalactic plane

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Astrophysicists have discovered why spiral galaxies like our Milky Way are rare in the supergalactic plane, a dense region of our local universe
Harvard astronomers claim that the Milky Way's warped shape is due to an unbalanced halo of dark matter. This claim supports theories of a previous galactic collision and provides insights into the nature of dark matter. Credit: Stefan Payne-Wardenaar; Magellanic Clouds: Robert Gendler/ESO

Dark matter and galactic collisions: Harvard astronomers explain the mysterious curvature of the Milky Way

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The cause of this is a distorted dark matter halo
An artist's impression of a magnetar in an eruption, showing a complex structure of magnetic fields and beam emission, shown here after a crustal rupture event. Credit: McGill University Graphic Design Team

Astronomers discover a powerful short burst of radio radiation from a place relatively close to the Milky Way

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The close proximity of high-energy pulses suggests that magnetars may be the source of certain fast bursts of radio radiation
Imaging the supernova explosions of the first giant stars to form in the Milky Way. The star J0815 + 4729 formed from the material ejected by these first supernovae. Photo courtesy of Gabriel Perez, SMM (IAC).

Astronomers have detected amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere of an ancient star

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A merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda. Image: NASA; ESA; Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas; and A. Mellinger

The violent history of the Andromeda galaxy, which is on its way to collide with the Milky Way

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The early days of the solar system. Illustration: Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC

Scientists recreated the history of the Milky Way

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Bands of stars, from the Carnegie Institution video - credit Jonathan Gagné Jacqueline Faherty

Stars also like to fly in flocks

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Today's galaxy M32 was about 2 billion years ago the core of a larger galaxy M32P, the third largest galaxy in the cosmic neighborhood. Illustration: Illustration: Richard D'Souza.

Andromeda swallowed a large galaxy 2 billion years ago

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The sky of Gaia - in artificial colors. Photo: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

"Thanks to "Gaia" we know 1.7 billion stars in the Milky Way"

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The spaceship Gaia. Figure: European Space Agency

"Gaia's data could enable breakthroughs in astronomy"

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Artist's illustration of runaway stars that have managed to escape the gravitational pull of the Milky Way. Image: NASA

Two new "shooting stars" have been discovered

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(Courtesy of Stefan Gissar and ESO, European Southern Observatory).

The Milky Way as never seen before

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Laniakia supercluster. Source: R. Brent Tully et al, The Laniakea supercluster of galaxies, Nature 513, 2014.

Laniakia: Our exact address in the universe

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An X-shaped structure made of stars in the center of the Milky Way. Photo, WISE Space Telescope, University of Toronto

The WISE telescope discovered an X-shaped star bulge in the center of the Milky Way

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A merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda. Image: NASA; ESA; Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas; and A. Mellinger

Are our galaxy and neighboring galaxy Andromeda already touching and will collide sooner than we think?

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The Milky Way as photographed in 2008 by Yossi Khouri. At the bottom of the photo - the other participants in the observation using red lanterns to prevent light pollution and interference with the observation.

The Milky Way is currently hidden from about a third of humanity

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"The Great Attractor" - Illustration: Perks Radio Observatory

The "Great Attractor" mystery has (probably) been solved - hundreds of galaxies hidden behind the Milky Way have been discovered

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On the map, which you can see above, the focal point from which the lines come out is at the point where the earth is located. To his right the older stars (red) around the center of the galaxy and to his left the younger stars (blue) in the outer parts of the disk. As the researchers in the group say, the Milky Way galaxy has grown outward over time.

Not just the entire universe: the Milky Way galaxy is expanding outward over time

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An animation showing how the orbits of stars in the Milky Way may change. In the picture you see two pairs of stars (marked in blue and red). Each couple started their life on the same path and suddenly one of the stars in the couple changed its path. The star marked in red has completed its transition to its new orbit while the star marked in blue is still moving. Photo Credit: Illustration by Dana Berry/SkyWorks Digital, Inc.; SDSS collaboration

About a third of the stars in the Milky Way have moved

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A view of a cluster of young stars (million years old), known as the North American Nebula or the Plesian Nebula (top right). This is a clean and processed version of the original Spitzer Space Telescope image. NASA/JPL-Caltech. Illustration: shutterstock

New video: A high-resolution tour of the center of the Milky Way

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The Milky Way. Illustration: shutterstock

Raise the screen over a galaxy composed of dark matter

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Stars are running away. Graphics: Julie Turner, the top view of the galaxy is from NASA and the horizontal image is from the European Southern Observatory. Credit: Graphic design by Julie Turner, Vanderbilt University. The top view of the galaxy comes from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the side view comes from the European Southern Observatory.)

A surprising new type of ultra-fast stars escaping the galaxy

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European Space Agency poster depicting the Gaia mission

The end of the universe to the left - the Gaia spacecraft was launched to map the Milky Way

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supernova Illustration: shutterstock

Will a supernova in the Milky Way be visible from Earth in the next 50 years?

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The Smith Cloud (in orange, at the bottom of the image) is on its way to collide with the Milky Way. Photo: Bill Zaxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Magnetic force fields rescue a large gas cloud that is on a collision course with the Milky Way

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the universe. Illustration: shutterstock

A study that examined images from the Hubble Space Telescope: the galaxies took their "mature" form 11.5 billion years ago

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A dung beetle whose eyes are covered, in an experiment designed to test the beetles' use of the light of the Milky Way for orientation. Photo: Prof. Marcus Byrne from Wits University in Dr

The dung beetle - the first animal to use the milky path for orientation in space

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