Instead of a relatively distant dark galaxy, Westmeier thinks the object is more likely a regular gas cloud at the edge of the Milky Way. “I’m very skeptical about the claims that they’re ...

First, the gas in the central molecular zone (CMZ), a dense and chaotic region near the Milky Way’s core, appears to be ionised (meaning it is electrically charged because it has lost electrons ...

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs. Astronomers have at last identified what’s believed to be the edge of the Milky Way ...

Gaia has charted the cosmos since 2014, creating a vast encyclopedia of the positions and movements of celestial objects in our Milky Way and beyond. It is difficult to capture the breadth of ...

Ian Randall is Newsweek's Deputy Science Editor, based in Royston, U.K. His focus is reporting on science and health. He has covered archeology, geology, and physics extensively. Ian joined ...

Led by Satoya Nakano and Kengo Tachihara, the team has discovered that the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy neighboring the Milky Way, may be getting torn apart by the gravitation pull ...

A cosmic anomaly detected in a distant galaxy could portend a terrifying future for life in the Milky Way. The discovery suggests that our models of galactic evolution could be inaccurate.

The study is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Large spiral galaxies like the Milky Way are expected to take several billion years to form. During the first billion years of cosmic history ...