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Milky Way

All articles tagged with #milky way

space7 days ago•5 min saved

Rubin Observatory Detects Aquarius IV, a Faint Milky Way Satellite

Scientists using Rubin Observatory’s Early Data Preview 2 have announced Aquarius IV, an ultra-faint Milky Way satellite about 355,000 light-years away with an apparent magnitude of 18.3. The object was first spotted in Rubin data and later confirmed in archival images from the Dark Energy Camera, illustrating Rubin LSST’s potential to uncover many more faint satellites. Whether Aquarius IV is truly an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy or an unusually large globular cluster remains provisional, pending further spectroscopy and peer review.

via EarthSky|

#astronomy #dark-matter #dwarf-galaxies

astronomy8 days ago•4 min saved

Ancient Milky Way merger revealed by globular-cluster fossils

A Nature Astronomy study uses precise ages and metallicities of Milky Way globular clusters to reconstruct the Galaxy’s early growth, revealing three distinct age–metallicity tracks and an ancient major merger (progenitor Low-energy–Kraken–Heracles) about 12 billion years ago with roughly 500 million solar masses, depositing most material in the inner Milky Way. This refines the Milky Way’s formative timeline and complements JWST views of distant galaxies by tying together fossil stars and early-universe observations.

via The Conversation|

#astronomy #early-universe #gaia-sausage-enceladus

space9 days ago•43 min saved

AI unveils the Milky Way in a first-ever neutrino image

IceCube mapped the Milky Way with high-energy neutrinos over a decade, using deep learning to extract a faint galactic signal concentrated along the plane and toward the Galactic Center; the findings strongly indicate the Milky Way itself emits high-energy neutrinos, though no individual sources were pinpointed, and they pave the way for future IceCube upgrades and multimessenger studies.

via The Brighter Side of News|

#cosmic-rays #galactic-center #icecube-neutrino-observatory

science12 days ago•11 min saved

Naked-Eye Stars Aren’t Dead: Most Are Still Shining Within Reach

The common claim that the night sky is full of dead stars is mistaken: the stars visible without a telescope lie within roughly 4,000–10,000 light-years and have lifetimes from millions to trillions of years, so the light we see is a snapshot of their past rather than evidence of their demise. Because the naked-eye sample is nearby and long-lived, only about one visible star is expected to die every ~10,000 years as a rough Milky Way estimate, far slower than stellar lifespans. Exceptions exist (e.g., Earendel at great distance and Betelgeuse, which is not due to explode for ~100,000 years), but for ordinary observers the sky remains largely “alive.”

via Space Daily|

#betelgeuse #light-travel-time #milky-way

science13 days ago•13 min saved

Milky Way may host trillions of rogue planets, far outnumbering stars

NASA's nine-year microlensing study suggests about 20 planetary-mass objects per star—free-floating or in very wide orbits—potentially placing the Milky Way in the trillions of rogue planets, though the figure is model-based with broad uncertainty and not a direct census. The results favor many low-mass wanderers rather than giants, and future observations with the Roman Space Telescope are expected to sharpen the census and mass distribution.

via Space Daily|

#microlensing #milky-way #moa

space19 days ago•4 min saved

Mechanical Tracker Makes Pettit's Milky Way Shot Look Unreal

Astronaut Don Pettit's Milky Way image from the ISS drew skepticism about its realism, but he explained it was captured using a mechanical sidereal tracker on the Cupola to cancel the ISS's motion, turning stars into fixed points; the device, built by RIT, was later returned to the university.

via petapixel.com|

#cupola #don-pettit #iss

science20 days ago•2 min saved

Milky Way Hosts a Proton PeVatron Far More Energetic Than the LHC

Astronomers have identified LHAASO J1912+1014u as a proton PeVatron in the Milky Way, accelerating protons to PeV energies—well beyond the Large Hadron Collider—based on multiwavelength data from Fermi-LAT, FUGIN, and Chandra that rule out electrons as the gamma-ray source; the exact engine remains unknown, but such galactic PeVatrons may be common and help explain the origin of the most energetic cosmic rays.

via Gizmodo|

#cosmic-rays #gamma-rays #lhaaso-j19121014u

science23 days ago•8 min saved

Milky Way from Orbit: Astronaut Shares Stunning ISS Photo

Astronaut Don Pettit shared a Milky Way image captured from the International Space Station’s Cupola, taken with a Nikon Z9 and ARRI Zeiss 15mm lens using a sidereal drive to cancel star motion; he says it’s one of his favorite Milky Way shots and has just received 1.2 million raw files from his latest mission, sparking widespread awe on social media.

via NDTV|

#cupola #don-pettit #iss

science23 days ago•6 min saved

Milky Way hides 170 million unseen stellar-mass black holes, new simulations suggest

A team modeling the Milky Way’s 13.6-billion-year history estimates about 170 million stellar-mass black holes lie throughout the Galaxy, with their distribution and motions shaped by natal kicks; upcoming observations should test these predictions and shed light on how massive stars die and how galaxies evolve.

via ScienceAlert|

#black-holes #galactic-evolution #milky-way

science24 days ago•4 min saved

August Sky Fireworks: Perseids Peak, Eclipses, and the Milky Way

August delivers prime stargazing: the Perseid meteor shower peaks Aug. 12–13 with up to about 100 meteors per hour in ideal dark locations, though New York City-area viewing will be dimmed by light pollution to roughly half that rate. A partial solar eclipse (~10% in NYC) will occur around Aug. 12, best viewed with eclipse glasses, followed by a 96% lunar eclipse on Aug. 27 visible from New York with no special glasses needed. The Milky Way and summer constellations like Scorpius will also be prominent, making August the standout month for skywatching; events like a Brooklyn Bridge Park viewing are planned, and there’s even a Reykjavik eclipse party hosted by Bjork.

via Gothamist|

#lunar-eclipse #milky-way #perseid-meteor-shower

space25 days ago•139 min saved

August 12 Skywatching Bonanza: Eclipse, Perseids, Venus and the Milky Way

On Aug. 12, 2026, skywatchers across North America and Europe can enjoy a daytime solar eclipse, followed by Venus at dichotomy after sunset and the peak of the Perseid meteor shower under moonless skies, with the Milky Way visible later in the night. The event offers a rare 24-hour sequence (partial to total eclipse in parts of the world; bright Venus after sunset; up to 50–75 meteors per hour under dark skies), plus region-by-region viewing notes (e.g., Alaska and the Northeast for eclipse timing; London and Paris near-total). Observers are urged to use ISO-certified solar glasses and proper filters for optics, with the best meteor viewing around midnight–2 a.m. local time. It could be one of the year's premier skywatching opportunities.

via Live Science|

#eclipse #milky-way #perseid

science25 days ago•7 min saved

August Skywatch: Partial Eclipses, Milky Way Glow, and Perseids in the DC Area

This August Skywatch previews partial solar and lunar eclipses visible in the DC region, highlights peak Milky Way viewing after dark, and notes the Perseid meteor shower, with safety tips for eclipse viewing, photography suggestions, and a calendar of local space events and activities.

via WTOP|

#astronomy #dc-region #eclipse

space26 days ago•1 min saved

Dusty Dark Doodad Casts a Silhouette Across Musca's Starfield

APOD's 2026-07-31 entry highlights the Dark Doodad Nebula, a dusty silhouette roughly 700 light-years away and about 30 light-years long, seen against rich starfields south of the Coalsack near the Musca constellation; near its southern tip sits globular cluster NGC 4372, a background Milky Way object about 20,000 light-years distant. The dark cloud is part of the Musca molecular cloud, and the image was captured by Alessandro Cipolat Bares; the name was popularized by Dennis di Cicco in 1986.

via NASA (.gov)|

#dark-doodad-nebula #milky-way #musca

astronomy28 days ago•132 min saved

Milky Way’s ancient 90-degree flip reshaped its halo

New Gaia measurements and computer simulations show the Milky Way’s halo rotates more slowly than its disk, likely because the galaxy underwent ancient head-on mergers and a dramatic disk flip that reoriented the disk by about 90 degrees. This misalignment slows halo rotation and could have shifted the solar system’s orbit, though the exact mechanism remains under investigation.

via Space|

#astronomy #disk-flip #gaia

space1 month ago•4 min saved

Ancient Merger May Have Tilted the Milky Way by Over 90 Degrees

Durham University researchers using supercomputer simulations say the Milky Way was probably rotated by more than 90 degrees in a head-on collision with the Gaia Sausage dwarf galaxy about 10 billion years ago, a gradual 'disc flip' that unfolded over hundreds of millions of years and helps explain the slow rotation of halo stars observed by Gaia; future mergers like Sagittarius and the Large Magellanic Cloud are unlikely to cause as dramatic a reshaping.

via The Times of India|

#disc-flip #gaia-sausage #galactic-collision