An astronomer using the National Science Foundation’s Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) has discovered that two prominent features rising out of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy are actually the distant edges of the same superstructure. This object, which has the appearance of a “lobe,” may have been formed during an epoch of furious star formation.
VLBA Movie of Mysterious Microquasar
Astronomers have made a 42-day movie showing unprecedented detail of the inner workings of a strange star system that has puzzled scientists for more than two decades. Their work is providing new insights that are changing scientists’ understanding of the enigmatic stellar pairs known as microquasars.
Furious Star Formation in Distant Galaxy
Astronomers have discovered a key signpost of rapid star formation in a galaxy 11 billion light-years from Earth, seen as it was when the Universe was only 20 percent of its current age.
Cosmic Explosions Have Common Origin
A Fourth of July fireworks display features bright explosions that light the sky with different colors, yet all have the same cause.
Distance Measurement Solves Astrophysical Mysteries
Location, location, and location: the old real-estate adage about what’s really important proved applicable to astrophysics as astronomers used the sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array to pinpoint the distance to a pulsar.
Giant Gas Cloud Made of Atoms Formed in First Stars
Astronomers studying the most distant quasar yet found in the Universe have discovered a massive reservoir of gas containing atoms made in the cores of some of the first stars ever formed.