black hole, milky way, nasa, space bubbles

Mysteries of the Galaxy: Massive Bubbles Discovered in Milky Way

An international team of scientists has just discovered two massive bubbles at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The bubbles appear to be joined in the shape of an hourglass. It is hypothesized that these are the remnants of a huge cosmic explosion that took place in the galaxy some 7 million years ago. ...

Armin Auctor

The MeerKAT telescope.

Milky Way’s Black Hole Grew 75 Times Brighter for a Few Hours

Even though the black hole at the center of the Milky Way is a monster, it’s still rather quiet. Called Sagittarius A*, it’s about 4.6 million times more massive than our Sun. Usually, it’s a brooding behemoth. But scientists observing Sgr. A* with the Keck Telescope just watched as its brightness bloomed to over 75 times normal for ...

Troy Oakes

Black hole in the Milky Way.

Milky Way Heading for Catastrophic Collision

New research led by astrophysicists at Durham University, UK, predicts that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) could hit the Milky Way in 2 billion years’ time. The collision could occur much earlier than the predicted impact between the Milky Way and another neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, which scientists say will hit our galaxy in 8 billion years. ...

Troy Oakes

Doomed Star in Milky Way Threatens Rare Gamma-Ray Burst

University of Sydney astronomers, working with international colleagues, have found a star system like none seen before in our galaxy. Scientists believe that one of the stars — about 8,000 light-years from Earth — is the first known candidate in the Milky Way to produce a dangerous gamma-ray burst, among the most energetic events in ...

Troy Oakes

Doomed star in the Milky Way.

Confirmed Collision Between 2 Milky Way Satellite Galaxies

If you’re standing in the Southern Hemisphere on a clear night, you can see two luminous clouds offset from the Milky Way. These clouds of stars are satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, called the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Large Magellanic Cloud, or SMC and LMC. Using newly released data from a new, powerful ...

Troy Oakes

A collision between two Milky Way satellite galaxies.