Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is a dominant member of Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html…
Tag: spiral
The Large Magellanic Cloud, our galactic neighbor
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a petite galaxy visible with the unaided eye – all year round – for those in the Southern Hemisphere. This small neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way is somewhere between spiral and irregular in shape. Source: https://earthsky.org/clusters-nebulae-galaxies/the-large-magellanic-cloud…
New Milky Way family tree reveals a chaotic history
Scientists in Germany have created a new family tree of our Milky Way galaxy, showing how it has grown over billions of years from chaotic mergers with smaller galaxies. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/milky-way-family-tree-progenitor-galaxy-collisions-kraken…
For 3rd data release, Gaia gazed toward galactic anticenter
The 3rd data release from the Gaia mission will provide astronomers with a “treasure trove” of information they didn’t have before. As they analyze Gaia’s data in the years ahead, we’re sure to learn new and surprising things about our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/gaia-3rd-data-release-edr3-dec-2020…
Earth faster, closer to Milky Way black hole, than previously thought
A new survey of our galaxy by astronomers with VERA in Japan has shown that Earth is both moving faster and is closer to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy than previously thought. But don’t worry, our planet is safe! Source: https://earthsky.org/space/earth-faster-closer-to-milky-way-central-black-hole…
Curly Spiral Galaxy M63
A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html…
Rapid-forming giants could disrupt spiral protoplanetary discs
Giant planets that developed early in a star system’s life could solve a mystery of why spiral structures are not observed in young protoplanetary discs, according to a new study by University of Warwick astronomers. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-rapid-forming-giants-disrupt-spiral-protoplanetary.html…
Galaxy encounter violently disturbed Milky Way, study finds
The spiral-shaped disk of stars and planets is being pulled, twisted and deformed with extreme violence by the gravitational force of a smaller galaxy—the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-galaxy-encounter-violently-disturbed-milky.html…
Five new dwarf galaxies detected around M63
Using an amateur 0.14-m aperture telescope, astronomers have observed a nearby spiral galaxy known as M63 (or NGC 5055). The observations identified the presence of five faint dwarf galaxies around M63 and allowed the researchers to determine their basic parameters. The finding is reported in a paper published November 10 on arXiv.org. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-dwarf-galaxies-m63.html…
Feeding a galaxy’s nuclear black hole
A galactic bar is the approximately linear structure of stars and gas that stretches across the inner regions of some galaxies. The bar stretches from one inner spiral arm, across the nuclear region, to an arm on the other side. Found in about half of spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way, bars are thought to funnel large amounts of gas into…