Galaxies are unfathomably huge, dynamic beasts made up of stars that burst into and out of life in cosmic blinks of an eye. Yet we’ve barely been able to observe the mysterious life cycles of galaxies beyond our own. Now, spectacular images of galaxies just next door to the Milky Way, captured…

The first detailed cross-section of a galaxy broadly similar to the Milky Way, published today, reveals that our galaxy evolved gradually, instead of being the result of a violent mash-up. The finding throws the origin story of our home into doubt. Galaxy UGC 10738, seen edge-on through the European Southern…

Artist impressions of the thin stream of stars torn from the Phoenix globular cluster, wrapping around the Milky Way (left) and the bright red giant stars used measure the chemical composition of the cluster (right). Image credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions / S5 Collaboration The paper, lead by Zhen…

We’ve all looked up at night and admired the brightly shining stars. Beyond making a gorgeous spectacle, measuring that light helps us learn about matter in our galaxy, the Milky Way. When astronomers add up all the ordinary matter detectable around us (such as in galaxies, stars and planets), they…

Completion of Australian-led astronomy project sheds light on the evolution of the Universe. The complex mechanics determining how galaxies spin, grow, cluster and die have been revealed following the release of all the data gathered during a massive seven-year Australian-led astronomy research project. The scientists observed 13 galaxies at a…

If you look up in the southern sky you can see the “pointer” stars, pointing towards the Southern Cross. One of these pointers is Alpha Centauri, which is actually a pair of Sun-like stars that are too close together to tell apart by eye. There is a third member of…