CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 11, 1998
Large balls of gas--failed stars that glow faintly like dying embers--are a newly discovered class of stellar objects and may be the most common bodies in the Milky Way, Caltech astronomers reported Tuesday at a San Diego meeting of the American Astronomical Society. They call the new objects "L" dwarfs and said their discovery will force revision of a century-old system of classifying stars based on chemistry and temperature. J.
August 20, 2005 |
From Earth, the Milky Way is a band of stars that lights up the night sky. From outside the galaxy looking in, astronomers say, it's an entirely different picture. Astronomers say a bar of stars cuts through the center of the galaxy that includes the sun and Earth. "We're pretty certain of the extent and orientation of this bar because we got more data than anybody else ... by a long shot," said Edward G.
May 30, 1991 |
UC San Diego scientists have discovered a second huge source of gamma rays in the Milky Way, a black hole or a neutron star that is generating enough radiation to power 50,000 suns. Reporting to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, research physicist Michael S. Briggs said the object is about 1,800 light-years away from Earth. This is much closer than the so-called "Great Annihilator," the gamma ray source that is believed to be a black hole near the center of the galaxy.
April 22, 1994 |
An astronomer has found "irrefutable evidence" of at least two planets orbiting a nearby star--the first confirmed observation of planets outside the solar system humanity calls home. What has scientists most excited, however, is that the finding suggests that planets can form around almost any star and that the galaxy may well be crowded with planets.
October 15, 2005 |
Dozens of massive stars, destined for short but brilliant lives, were born less than a light-year from the Milky Way's central black hole, one of the most hostile environments in our galaxy, astronomers reported Thursday. Researchers using the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory and other instruments believe there is a safe zone around black holes, a big dust ring where stars can form.
June 8, 1993 |
Astronomers studying photographs of the sky said Monday that the Milky Way apparently is shrouded by enough invisible "dark matter" to make Earth's home galaxy five to 10 times larger and heavier than once thought. UC Santa Cruz astronomer Douglas N.C. Lin said the Milky Way is so massive that it is swallowing up the smaller, neighboring galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 3, 1996 |
German astronomers said Wednesday they had all but proved there is a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extra-Terrestrial Physics, near Munich, said he remained cautious about claiming absolute proof, but "it was caution backed up by the best evidence that has yet existed," he said. The only means of detecting a black hole is by observing its gravitational effects on other objects.
November 1, 2013 |
Is it time for an intervention of galactic proportions? Astronomers say they've caught the Milky Way popping pills - giant capsules of gas clouds encapsulated in magnetic fields that are hovering around the fringes of our galaxy. The findings, described in Astrophysical Journal, could help explain how the galaxy has been fueling new star growth. The Smith Cloud is a cloud of hydrogen gas discovered by and named after Gail Bieger (née Smith) that's hurtling toward our galaxy at roughly 73 kilometers per second.
May 31, 2012 |
The Milky Way is set to collide with its closest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope said Thursday. Galactic residents need not brace for impact just yet, however: The predicted collision would take place in 4 billion years. Andromeda, officially known as Messier 31, or M31, is located about 2.5 million light-years away from the Milky Way - which would make it our closest fellow spiral galaxy. Spiral galaxies have flat, rotating, disc-shaped bodies with spiral arms anchored by a supermassive black hole at the center.
July 9, 1995 |
As the world's most sensitive electronic eardrum, the Green Bank Telescope is expected to pick up signals from outer space that none other has ever heard. The radio telescope, under construction at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, will help map the universe by receiving radio waves more clearly than any other instrument on Earth, said site director Jay Lockman. It will be the largest fully steerable radio telescope when finished in December, 1996.