Milky Way

The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole went ballistic during the Renaissance

We didn’t yet have the technology to notice, but Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, threw one hell of a tantrum a few hundred years ago. It’s the only explanation for mysterious x-ray anomalies. The center of the Milky Way is full of X-ray sources, many of which seem…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Sep 15

The Milky Way’s arms are splayed in response to a ‘punch’ from another galaxy

A nearby dwarf galaxy, Sagittarius, has delivered two “punches” to our Milky Way galaxy. These impacts are what gave the Milky Way its spiraling arms. And we may take another hit soon. At 10,000 light years across, Sagittarius is a small galaxy just a tenth the size of the Milky Way. It’s also not very…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 15

Thousands of white dwarf stars could theoretically explode at any moment

The whole point of white dwarfs is that they’re the remains of stars not big enough to go supernova. Or so we thought. Many of these stars are held together by their super-fast spins… and slowing down could mean an explosion. Yes, it’s pretty much the plot of the movie Speed, except with thousands of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Sep 6

Video of the World’s First Realistic Simulation of the Creation of Our Galaxy

Astrophysicists from the University of Zurich working with UCSC’s astronomers have created the world’s first realistic simulation of the formation of the Milky Way. It’s amazing that all this clockwork perfection came out of such a galactic Charlie Foxtrot. The video—which follows the original announcement of the study—starts less than a million years after the…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Aug 31

The First Hi-Res Simulation of the Milky Way’s Formation

It took nine months and 1.4 million processor-hours of work from NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer but a group of researchers from UC Santa Cruz have discovered how, exactly, our galaxy was born. The Cold Dark Matter theory posits that right after the Big Bang, gravitational forces influenced the minute variations in density of dark matter, slowly…

Space & Spaceflight Andrew Tarantola Aug 30

Within these infrared clouds, absolute darkness reigns

This image taken by NASA’s Wise Satellite is in the infrared spectrum, meaning it can reveal the light that is normally hidden behind thick, dark clouds of gas. But some clouds are so dark that no light can get through. These are known as infrared dark clouds — they’re the black patches in the image…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 30

This Time-Lapse of the Milky Way in South Dakota’s Skies Is the Best Good Morning I Could Ask For

Good morning indeed! We know Randy Halverson pretty well for his wonderful milky way time lapses. Here’s another, taken out in South Dakota and set to a beautiful score. [Vimeo via The Daily What]

Tech News Kwame Opam Aug 24

96 new star clusters found hiding in the cosmic dust

Many stars form in giant groups known as open clusters, which are crucial for the galaxy’s development. There should be about 30,000 clusters in the Milky Way, but we’ve only ever found 2,500. Now, you can raise that number to 2,596. The VISTA Variables telescope, an infrared telescope housed at the European Southern Observatory’s Panaral…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 3

Awesome image gives you two night skies for the price of one

This breathtaking panorama combines the two hemispheres of the Milky Way galaxy into one. On top, we can see the northern stars from the Canary Islands, while on bottom we can see the southern sky from Chile’s Atacama desert. A NASA astronomer explains further: The photographers’ choice of locations offered locally dark skies enjoyed by…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 31

Nighttime on a strange alien world (or possibly Nevada)

Between those bizarre structures, the impossible colors up in the night sky, and the fact that this photo was apparently taken in the middle of a busy star cluster, how can this not be from some far distant alien world? The answer, it seems, is when you’re looking in just the right direction at some…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 25

Abandoned Pyramids Meet the Majesty of the Milky Way

The Milky Way, old news. But what the hell is this scene? A row of stone pyramids in middle-of-nowhere Nevada. Abandoned. And they’ve been derelict for over a century. The structures, now part of Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park, were just that—kilns built to crisp wood into charcoal, part of a much larger town…

Tech News Sam Biddle Jul 25

This Is How Big Our Galaxy Is Compared to the Biggest Galaxy of Them All

The Milky Way is huge compared to our Sun, just one more speck of dust of the 400 billion stars in it. But, at 100,000 light years across, it’s tiny compared to other galaxies in the Universe. Quite frankly, I see these videos and all I want is to send everything to hell and go…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jul 12

This cosmic dust cloud blocks our view of the galaxy

The Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years in diameter, but that doesn’t mean we’re necessarily able to see everything our galaxy has to offer. The trouble comes from this thick nearby dust cloud, which blocks the stars behind it. This particular dust cloud is located near the constellation Corona Australis, also known as the Southern…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 27

Is a hole in the universe opening up…in Wyoming?

You’d be forgiven for having that reaction to this photo of the Ames Monument, a pyramid in Wyoming built to commemorate the transcontinental railroad. But that strange, unearthly light is just the beginning of the weirdness on display here. For the record, that strange light isn’t a wormhole opening up over Wyoming – it’s just…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 6

This faraway galaxy is the Milky Way’s identical twin

This is the galaxy NGC 6744, located about 30 million light-years away. It just so happens that this galaxy looks pretty much exactly like what our own galaxy would look like…except this galaxy is twice as big as ours. Still, despite its vastly bigger size, NGC 6744 is otherwise a dead ringer for our own…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 1

This is the most important star in the universe

This star may not look like much, but in 1923 it changed our understanding of the universe forever. It showed us that the Milky Way wasn’t a lonely island universe, but instead just one of billions and billions of galaxies. It seems weird to think that less than a hundred years ago we still had…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 24

Newly-discovered galactic arm means the Milky Way is more warped than we thought

One of the problems of living inside our galaxy is that it can be devilishly tricky figuring out exactly what the Milky Way actually looks like. We might have discovered a whole new arm of our galaxy…and it’s very strange. It was back in 1852 that College of New Jersey astronomer Stephen Alexander first suggested…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 16

The constellations come out to play above the Very Large Telescope

These buildings are three of the structures that make up the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, located in Chile’s Atacama Desert. In the skies above them are the constellations Orion, Canis Major, and the Southern Cross, among many others. This is just a section of Yuri Beletsky’s full photograph, which reveals the entire Milky…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 15

Amateur Astrophotographer Creates Largest True-Color Night Sky Panorama

One day, Nick Risinger, a 28-year-old marketing director from Seattle, felt like he needed a change. So he quit his job, packed up six professional astronomical cameras, and hiked 60,000 miles through western United States and South Africa, taking 37,000 color pictures of the night sky. The result? This 5000-megapixel, interactive, zoomable map showing our…

Space & Spaceflight Davey Alba May 3

Incredible time-lapse footage of the Milky Way from the Canary Islands

Photographer Terje Sorgjerd (who previously shot a beautiful time-lapse of aurora borealis) captured these awesome shots of the Milky Way from Pico del Teide on the Canary Islands. Watch as a Saharan sandstorm backlights the cosmic firmament. https://gizmodo.com/aurora-borealis-lights-up-the-sky-like-psychedelic-fire-5786080 You can see the sandstorm at the 0:32 mark. Says Sorgjerd: A large sandstorm hit the Sahara…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Apr 16

The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole went ballistic during the Renaissance

The Milky Way’s arms are splayed in response to a ‘punch’ from another galaxy

Thousands of white dwarf stars could theoretically explode at any moment

Video of the World’s First Realistic Simulation of the Creation of Our Galaxy

The First Hi-Res Simulation of the Milky Way’s Formation

Within these infrared clouds, absolute darkness reigns

This Time-Lapse of the Milky Way in South Dakota’s Skies Is the Best Good Morning I Could Ask For

96 new star clusters found hiding in the cosmic dust

Awesome image gives you two night skies for the price of one

Nighttime on a strange alien world (or possibly Nevada)

Abandoned Pyramids Meet the Majesty of the Milky Way

This Is How Big Our Galaxy Is Compared to the Biggest Galaxy of Them All

This cosmic dust cloud blocks our view of the galaxy

Is a hole in the universe opening up…in Wyoming?

This faraway galaxy is the Milky Way’s identical twin

This is the most important star in the universe

Newly-discovered galactic arm means the Milky Way is more warped than we thought

The constellations come out to play above the Very Large Telescope

Amateur Astrophotographer Creates Largest True-Color Night Sky Panorama

Incredible time-lapse footage of the Milky Way from the Canary Islands

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