Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy just constructed a detailed, three-dimensional map of the cosmic dust in our galaxy. The map makes use of 130 million spectra from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission to reveal properties of the dust, which clouds the cosmos between our world and just about everything else in […]
Shockingly Tiny Galaxy Near Andromeda Is Just One-Millionth the Size of the Milky Way
A group of astronomers has discovered the smallest, dimmest satellite galaxy bordering the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. The itsy-bitsy satellite galaxy is named Andromeda XXXV and sits about 3 million light-years from Earth. The discovery of the galaxy gives astronomers a useful comparative tool for studying satellite galaxies on the outskirts […]
Wicked High-Definition Image of the Cosmic Web Shows the Universe’s Dark Matter Scaffolding
Researchers compiled hundreds of astronomical observations into a high-definition image of a cosmic filament, part of the megastructure that undergirds the universe’s matter. The filament connects two galaxies that date back to when the universe was a youthful 2 billion years old (it is now about 13.77 billion years old). It showcases the way a […]