galaxies

Are Andromeda and the Milky Way Already Exchanging Stars?

I often drag out the amazing fact that the Andromeda Galaxy, that faint fuzzy blob just off the corner of…

6 days ago

Black Holes Need Refreshing Cold Gas to Keep Growing

How were supermassive black holes able to grow so rapidly in the early Universe? Galactic mergers were believed to be…

1 week ago

This Galaxy Was Already Dead When the Universe Was Only 700 Million Years Old

When a galaxy runs out of gas and dust, the process of star birth stops. That takes billions of years.…

2 weeks ago

Dwarf Galaxies Banished the Darkness and Lit Up the Early Universe

During the Universe's Dark Ages, dense primordial gas absorbed and scattered light, prohibiting it from travelling. Only when the first…

3 weeks ago

Powerful Jets From a Black Hole are Spawning Star Clusters

Supermassive black holes are messy feeders, and when they're gorging on too much material, they can hurl high-energy jets into…

4 weeks ago

JWST Sees a Milky Way-Like Galaxy Coming Together in the Early Universe

The gigantic galaxies we see in the Universe today, including our own Milky Way galaxy, started out far smaller. Mergers…

4 weeks ago

Even if We Can’t See the First Stars, We Could Detect Their Impact on the First Galaxies

For a long time, our understanding of the Universe's first galaxies leaned heavily on theory. The light from that age…

1 month ago

Hubble Sees a Bridge of Stars Connecting Two Galaxies

The poetic-minded among us like to point out how Nature is a dance. If they're right, then galaxies sometimes form…

1 month ago

How Does the Cosmic Web Drive Galaxy Evolution?

Galaxies experience a long strange trip through the cosmic web as they grow and evolve. It turns out that the…

1 month ago

A Black Hole Has Cleared Out Its Neighbourhood

We can't see them directly, but we know they're there. Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) likely dwell at the center of…

1 month ago