X-Headlines

Stellar motions in nearby galaxy hint at underlying dark matter

1 December 2017 Astronomy Now

By pinning down, for the first time, the three-dimensional motions of individual stars in the nearby Sculptor dwarf galaxy, astronomers have shed new light on the distribution of invisible dark matter that pervades the galaxy.

Spectroscopic survey probes uncharted depths of Hubble Ultra Deep Field

1 December 2017 Astronomy Now

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have conducted the deepest spectroscopic survey ever. They focused on the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, measuring distances and properties of 1600 very faint galaxies, including 72 galaxies that have never been detected before, even by Hubble itself.

Giant black hole pair photobombs Andromeda galaxy

1 December 2017 Astronomy Now

It seems like even black holes can’t resist the temptation to insert themselves unannounced into photographs. A cosmic photobomb found as a background object in images of the nearby Andromeda galaxy has revealed what could be the most tightly coupled pair of supermassive black holes ever seen.

Infant stars discovered surprisingly near galaxy’s supermassive black hole

28 November 2017 Astronomy Now

At the centre of our galaxy, in the immediate vicinity of its supermassive black hole, is a region wracked by powerful tidal forces and bathed in intense ultraviolet light and X-ray radiation. These harsh conditions, astronomers surmise, do not favour star formation, especially low-mass stars like our Sun. Surprisingly, new observations suggest otherwise.