Tag Archives: Milky Way

Where cosmic rays are born

By Sid Perkins / February 16, 2013
Here we go! Shock waves in the clouds of gas surrounding an exploding star (as in this artist’s depiction) accelerate charged particles called protons to very high speed, creating cosmic rays. Credit: Greg Stewart, SLAC Nat'l Accelerator Lab.

New evidence links origin of these very energetic particles to massive explosions of distant stars

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Super star-maker

By Stephen Ornes / September 4, 2012
This artist’s drawing shows what the central galaxy of the Phoenix cluster might look like. The small blue dots represent new stars forming. Credit: NASA.gov

A distant galaxy cluster churns out stars at a whopping rate

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End of big bug era

By Stephen Ornes / June 21, 2012
dragonfly2_feature

Flying predators probably gobbled up the biggest of the large flying insects 150 million years ago

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Galactic mashup

By Stephen Ornes / June 18, 2012
A show of swirling lights will fill the night sky as the Andromeda galaxy collides with the Milky Way in 4 billion years. Since you won’t be there to see it, here’s an artist’s illustration of what the mashup might look like. Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), and A. Mellinger

Save the date: The Milky Way will merge with its nearest large neighbor in about 4 billion years

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Dark matter search turns up empty

By Stephen Ornes / May 8, 2012
A blue cloud of dark, or invisible, matter surrounds the swirl of the Milky Way galaxy in this illustration. A new study suggests our galaxy’s dark matter may have a shape other than a sphere. Credit: L. Calçada/ESO

Star study suggests our cosmic neighborhood may be lacking invisible matter

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