Chasing dark matter with the oldest stars in the Milky Way
January 24, 2018
Seeing the whole galaxy with a ‘second eye on the sky’
April 4, 2017
Seeing the whole galaxy with a ‘second eye on the sky’,
Phys.org, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, 29 March 2017
Galactica stellaris: Astronomers Build a Family Tree for the Milky Way’s Stars
March 28, 2017
Galactica stellaris: Astronomers Build a Family Tree for the Milky Way’s Stars,
Scientific American, Mara Johnson-Groh, 27 March 2017
New Model Explains the Formation of Supermassive Black Holes in the Very Early Universe
March 16, 2017
New Model Explains the Formation of Supermassive Black Holes in the Very Early Universe,
AAAS / EurekAlert!, Dr. John Regan, et al., University of Helsinki, 14 March 2017
The Milky Way’s black hole is spewing out planet-size ‘spitballs’
January 11, 2017
The Milky Way’s black hole is spewing out planet-size ‘spitballs’,
Phys.org, Christine Pulliam, 9 January 2017
How Far Away is That Galaxy? Vast Catalog Has Answers
January 7, 2017
How Far Away is That Galaxy? Vast Catalog Has Answers,
NASA, JPL-Caltech, 5 January 2017
See a Virtual Milky Way Map from Europe’s Gaia Spacecraft
November 17, 2016
See a Virtual Milky Way Map from Europe’s Gaia Spacecraft,
Space.com, Tariq Malik, 16 November 2016
A Long-Lost Gas Cloud Will Slam into Our Galaxy in 30 Million Years
November 3, 2016
A Long-Lost Gas Cloud Will Slam into Our Galaxy in 30 Million Years,
Space.com, , 3 November 2016
This Is the Most Detailed Hydrogen Map of the Milky Way Ever Created
October 20, 2016
This Is the Most Detailed Hydrogen Map of the Milky Way Ever Created,
Gizmodo, 20 October 2016
ESA Gaia Spacecraft to Release Data on Positions of Roughly 1 Billion Stars
October 7, 2016
Upcoming Galaxy Map Could Radically Transform How We See the Milky Way,
Scientific American, 12 September 2016
Galaxy Formation Simulated on Swiss Supercomuters
September 10, 2011
The research group including Professor Lucio Mayer of University of Zurich and astronomers from University of California created the galaxy formation simulation using supercomputer resources of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre and the NASA Colombia Cluster. Their work represents a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the dynamic formation of barred spiral galaxies much like the Milky Way.
Between Switzerland and California the project took 2 years of dedicated work and 5,000,000 CPU hours. That means it would have taken your average PC many hundreds of years to calculate.
In a separate video during an interview by Michele De Lorenzi, Mayer describes the process of creating the simulation and some of the difficulties that held back decades of attempts to successfully simulate formation of large complex galaxies.
Galaxy Structure Emerging From New Discoveries
June 24, 2011
Outer Section Of Galaxy Arm Found, Leads To Wide-View Re-Evaluation Of Galaxy Plane
The often overlooked regions askew to the galactic plane are coming into new focus. Because the galaxy was thought to be relatively flat apart from the central bulge, very little observation of areas outside the plane has been conducted. However scientists are now uncovering a pronounced warp in the disk of the Galaxy, with the help of this new found section of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm. Looking forward this will lead to new approaches within galactic science and observation, as well as exciting new discoveries.
Our understanding of the Galaxy continues to improve with a recent discovery, 49,000 light-years from the center of our Galaxy, by Thomas Dame and Patrick Thaddeus of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
(Credit: R. Hurt SSC)
Data indicate that the galactic region they have observed and studied is the outer extension of the Scutum-Centaurus spiral arm, which extends from the bar-shaped star cluster at the center of the Galaxy. This section of the arm had never before been cataloged. Scrutiny of 21cm wavelength radio emissions allowed Dame to track the arm structure through the sky and he then was able to follow-up looking for evidence of molecular clouds on a CfA 1.2m radio telescope at Harvard.
“One can now trace the Scutum-Centaurus Arm nearly 360 degrees around the galactic system.” said Thaddeus.
The team was able to find and identify this new section of the Scutum-Centaurus formation despite that it warps out of the galactic plane into less-studied vectors.
A close symmetry is established as the Perseus arm extends from the opposite side of the galactic center. The new information bolsters the concept that our galaxy has only these 2 major arms.
(Credit: Axel Mellinger)
The Best Look Yet
June 2, 2011
This stunning image (Photo Release ESO1118) of the NGC 6744 Galaxy, from the European Southern Observatory‘s La Silla Observatory in Chile, represents the best look yet at what our own Milky Way Galaxy may look like.
Humans have not been able to reach far enough to image our Galaxy from the outside, although some projects have attempted to generate an image from within, using special optics and calculations. For example, two teams headed by Sean Carey of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology and Edward Churchwell of the University of Wisconsin, used 800,000 pictures from the Spitzer Space Telescope to create an insightful view of the inner Milky Way Galaxy.
At the time, this image (Credit: JPL) was billed as the highest resolution infrared picture ever taken of our Galaxy.
GLIMPSE, Galactic Legacy Infrared Midplane Extraordinaire, was a more extensive survey conducted by the IRAC instrument on board Spitzer Space Telescope to generate an incredible high-resolution panoramic view of our Galaxy. The best way to explore this captivating picture is the online GLIMPSE Image Viewer, hosted by the Space Science Institute.
While the new image from ESO is not actually of the Milky Way, astronomers indicate that it is the best representation currently available. Moreover, we are fortunate that the angles worked out so that we get an ‘over-head’ view.
Moonbots 2011
May 19, 2011
Moonbots 2011 is a Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO MINDSTORMS Challenge, and it correlates directly with the projects and goals of Galaxy Forums and the International Lunar Observatory Association.
“In the MoonBots 2.0 Challenge, students get to produce videos, gain computer programming skills, and learn the latest in technological advances at it relates to space exploration. It is important to inspire this generation with the Google Lunar X PRIZE and help kids understand that Moon exploration is still relevant and exciting,”
Chanda Gonzales, Google Lunar X PRIZE Education Manager.
This is the second annual Moonbots Challenge. The video below provides a brief explanation of the Challenge by Chanda Gonzales from the X PRIZE Foundation and Steven Canvin from LEGO MINDSTORMS.
