Tag

Galaxies

All articles tagged with #galaxies

space1 day ago•105 min saved

Nearby ravenous black hole mirrors early-universe feeding frenzy

Astronomers observe a supermassive black hole at the center of SDSS J110546.07+145202.4 (about 1.8 billion light-years away) in a rapid accretion phase, launching jets and causing a roughly 20-fold increase in radio brightness over about eight years. The behavior resembles the vigorous feeding seen in the early universe, providing a nearby laboratory to study extreme accretion physics and jet production. The finding, published in The Astrophysical Journal (May), suggests such rapidly changing radio galaxies could help fill gaps in our understanding of early galaxy growth, with future SKA surveys expected to identify more transients.

via Space|

#accretion #black-holes #early-universe

space2 days ago•6 min saved

Giant Unexplained Radio Rings Hint at a New Class of Cosmic Structures

Astronomers have identified eight gigantic rings of radio emission in deep space, each more than 50 times the Milky Way’s width and visible only at radio wavelengths; their origins are unknown, though three rings sit at galaxy centers, suggesting the rings may be produced by galactic activity and could represent a new class of astronomical objects.

via Boing Boing|

#galaxies #new-class-of-astronomical-objects #odd-radio-circles

space6 days ago•6 min saved

Cosmic Web Persists Across Vast Scales, Challenging Uniformity

A Nature study analyzing 47 million galaxies from the DESI survey finds coherent patterns in the cosmic web extending across billions of light-years, suggesting the universe may not be perfectly homogeneous or isotropic on the largest scales. The result challenges a key cosmological assumption and could prompt revisions to models of dark matter, gravity, and structure formation, though independent replication with larger datasets is needed before firm conclusions.

via WIRED|

#astronomy #cosmic-web #cosmology

space7 days ago•14 min saved

Hubble’s Dark Patch Reveals a Crowded Cosmos: 3,000 Galaxies in a Tiny Sky

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope fixed its gaze on a seemingly empty patch of sky for ten days, assembling hundreds of exposures into the Hubble Deep Field and turning a void into a crowded image of roughly 3,000 distant galaxies—each billions of years old—demonstrating that the universe is full of structure even in directions that appear empty and paving the way for deeper surveys with Hubble and Webb.

via Space Daily|

#astronomy #deep-field #galaxies

space9 days ago•12 min saved

Ancient galaxy defies early-growth limits, seen 290 million years after the Big Bang

JWST confirmed the galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 at about z~14.3 (roughly 290 million years after the Big Bang), unusually large and bright for its age, and ALMA detected oxygen indicating heavy-element enrichment far earlier than models predicted—raising questions about how quickly the first galaxies assembled while not overturning the Big Bang framework.

via Space Daily|

#cosmology #early-universe #galaxies

science10 days ago•3 min saved

Third Dark-Matter-Free Galaxy Upends Galaxy Formation Theories

Yale-led researchers using Keck's KCWI measured the faint dwarf galaxy DF9, part of a 45-million-light-year linear chain with DF2 and DF4, to have a mass around 100 million solar masses that matches only its visible matter, showing no dark matter and supporting a violent-collision formation scenario that could strip dark matter from newborn galaxies; the finding strengthens the case for galaxies forming without dark-matter halos and prompts follow-up observations (including with the Mothra telescope) to search for residual gas and validate the proposed formation mechanism, with the study published June 16 in The Astrophysical Journal.

via Universe Today|

#dark-matter #dwarf-galaxies #galaxies

space11 days ago•10 min saved

Massive Cosmic Filament Reveals Synchronized Galaxy Spins, Posing New Spin-Formation Questions

Astronomers identified a colossal cosmic filament about 50 million light-years long containing roughly 300 galaxies, many of which appear to rotate in sync with the filament at about 110 km/s. This coordinated motion challenges standard ideas of how galaxies acquire spin (tidal torque) and suggests large-scale structure may influence spins more than expected. It’s an early, single striking case that requires more surveys and simulations to determine whether this synchrony is common and how theory might adapt.

via Space Daily|

#astronomy #cosmicweb #cosmology

science12 days ago•5 min saved

Gigantic Ring of Galaxies Stuns Cosmologists

Astronomers led by Alexia Lopez report two ultra-large galaxy structures—the 1.3-billion-light-year Big Ring and the nearby Giant Arc—challenging standard cosmology and the Cosmological Principle; they are not BAOs, and could hint at exotic explanations like conformal cyclic cosmology or cosmic strings; light from these structures has traveled about 6.9 billion years, and more such discoveries are needed to understand their origin.

via ScienceAlert|

#big-ring #cosmology #galaxies

space14 days ago•96 min saved

Giant bow-and-arrow radio galaxy RAD-BAARG reveals colossal cluster shock wave

Astronomers have identified RAD-BAARG, a 1.8-million-light-year-wide radio galaxy with a bow-and-arrow shape likely produced by a galaxy moving supersonically through a galaxy cluster, creating a giant bow shock; discovered by citizen scientists in the RAD@home project and studied with LOFAR's LoTSS survey, its asymmetric jets highlight how cluster environments reshape radio galaxies. The system lies in a complex, multi-halo gas environment, offering insights into jet–environment interactions; findings published June 22 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, demonstrating LOFAR's ability to detect faint, diffuse radio emission.

via Space|

#galaxies #galaxy-clusters #lofar

space17 days ago•13 min saved

Tiny Sky Patch Reveals a Universe of Galaxies, Thanks to Hubble

In December 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope spent ten days staring at a tiny, seemingly empty patch near the Big Dipper to avoid foreground clutter. The resulting Hubble Deep Field exposed about 3,000 galaxies in that minute patch, turning emptiness into a crowded view of the cosmos and shaping our understanding of galaxy formation and the scale of the universe.

via Space Daily|

#astronomy #cosmology #galaxies

space21 days ago•7 min saved

Third Dark-Matter-Free Galaxy Emerges

Researchers identify NGC 1052-DF9 as the third galaxy whose motions can be explained without dark matter, suggesting it formed through a violent “bullet dwarf collision” that separates ordinary matter from dark matter and offers new clues about the nature of dark matter.

via ScienceAlert|

#astrophysics #bullet-dwarf-collision #dark-matter

space1 month ago•94 min saved

Hubble Captures Mesmerizing Spiral Galaxy M88 in Virgo Cluster

Space.com highlights a new Hubble Space Telescope image of Messier 88 (NGC 4501), a spiral, active galaxy in the Virgo Cluster about 63 million light-years away. Captured with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, the image reveals swirling spiral arms feeding a central supermassive black hole and offers insight into how spiral galaxies operate in different environments. The piece notes this image is part of a broader study of spiral galaxies, and adds a playful warning that staring at the swirl might hypnotize you.

via Space|

#astronomy #galaxies #hubble-space-telescope

science1 month ago•3 min saved

Cosmic Winds Devour Early Galaxies, JWST Reveals

JWST observations of the merging galaxy system CRISTAL-02 show a massive wind blowing out cold gas, rapidly quenching star formation and potentially turning early massive galaxies into “dead” systems within tens of millions of years, offering a simple explanation for the abundance of dead galaxies in the early universe.

via Futurism|

#early-universe #galactic-winds #galaxies

astronomy1 month ago•17 min saved

Cosmic scale: from kilometer-sized rocks to galaxy-sized grandeur

A broad tour of the cosmos’ size spectrum, from hydrostatic, kilometer-scale bodies like small moons and asteroids to white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, then up through dwarf galaxies, huge galaxies, galaxy clusters, and the vast cosmic web. The article explains how gravity, hydrostatic equilibrium, and dark matter shape these objects, how light and gravitational lensing reveal their properties, and notes that while some structures seem enormous (e.g., the Sloan Great Wall, Train Wreck clusters), no larger bound structures have been confirmed. It emphasizes the universe’s staggering range of scales and complexities.

via Big Think|

#astronomy #astrophysics #black-holes

space1 month ago•9 min saved

Machine-learning sweep of Hubble data reveals 800+ new cosmic curiosities

AnomalyMatch scanned roughly 100 million Hubble image cutouts spanning ~35 years, returning 1,255 unique objects across 18 classes, with more than 800 not previously described in the literature. Most are known categories (merging galaxies, lenses, rings, jellyfish galaxies), but a few dozen resist current schemes. The study shows AI can scale anomaly discovery for future large surveys (Euclid, Rubin Observatory), while confirming that human inspection remains essential and follow-up observations are needed to validate lens candidates and classify unconfirmed objects.

via Space Daily|

#artificial-intelligence #astronomy #galaxies