Milky Way Galaxy – Astronomy Now

MeerKAT paints a mesmerising portrait of the Milky Way

26 January 2022 Astronomy Now

The MeerKAT radio telescope has produced a stunning mosaic of the Milky Way’s central regions, providing a new view of known and newly-discovered phenomena.

The Milky Way’s central bulge offers a jewel box packed with glittering stars

2 April 2020 Astronomy Now

Looking into the bulge of the Milky Way, the Hubble Space Telescope reveals a dynamic sea of stars made up of different generations, velocities and histories.

GAIA data indicates ongoing collision causing Milky Way’s warp

4 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Data from ESA’s Gaia satellite suggests an ongoing collision with a dwarf galaxy may be responsible for distorting the Milky Way’s disc.

A titanic burst of star formation in Milky Way’s recent past

17 December 2019 Astronomy Now

Peering into the heart of the Milky Way with a powerful infrared camera, astronomers see evidence for a titanic burst of star formation in the relatively recent past.

Radio telescope spots 27 previously unknown supernova remnants

25 November 2019 Astronomy Now

A new look at the central regions of the Milky Way, captured by the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, has revealed 27 previously unknown supernova remnants.

Hubble takes the measure of a nearby globular cluster

13 October 2019 Astronomy Now

Globular clusters are favourite targets for amateur astronomers, vast star swarms that date back to just after the big bang birth of the cosmos. NGC 6397 is one of the closest, as revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Milky Way tips the scales at 1.5 trillion solar masses

11 March 2019 Astronomy Now

Data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show the Milky Way galaxy tips the scales at around 1.5 trillion solar masses.

Intermediate mass black hole found near galactic centre

28 February 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers studying a swirling cloud of gas near the centre of the Milky Way have found what appears to be an intermediate mass black hole.

New analysis shows Milky Way a decidedly ‘warped” spiral

5 February 2019 Astronomy Now

Precisely mapping more than 1,300 Cepheid variable stars with known distances, astronomers have shown the disc of the Milky Way galaxy is warped.

The Sun expected to ride out a looming galactic merger

4 January 2019 Astronomy Now

A collision between the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud in about 1.5 billion years likely will re-energize the supermassive black hole lurking in our galaxy’s core.