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

Continue reading Remnants of an old neighbour engulfed by the Milky Way

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

Continue reading 5 twinkling galaxies help us uncover the mystery of the Milky Way’s missing matter

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

Continue reading The secrets of 3000 galaxies laid bare

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

Continue reading Bad space weather may make life impossible near Proxima Centauri

Astronomers have mapped about a million previously undiscovered galaxies beyond the Milky Way, in the most detailed survey of the southern sky ever carried out using radio waves. The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (or RACS) has placed the CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder radio telescope (ASKAP) firmly on the international astronomy

Continue reading We’ve mapped a million previously undiscovered galaxies beyond the Milky Way. Take the virtual tour here.

Australian-led GALAH project releases chemical information for 600,000 stars. How do stars destroy lithium? Was a drastic change in the shape of the Milky Way caused by the sudden arrival of millions of stellar stowaways? These are just a couple of the astronomical questions likely to be answered following the

Continue reading Playing detective on a galactic scale: huge new dataset will solve multiple Milky Way mysteries

Through the noise, young stars reveal their inner workings An Australian-led team has solved the mystery of how some rapidly rotating young stars pulsate. Delta Scuti stars can now be studied in more detail thanks to the work of Professor Tim Bedding and colleagues. By listening to the beating hearts

Continue reading Astronomers find regular rhythms among pulsating stars

Many stars that now live near the Sun were born somewhere else in the Galaxy. Astronomers have just worked out how these migrants reached their new homes and what set them travelling – important details of our Galaxy’s story.

A new study led by SIfA professor Joss Bland-Hawthorn shows evidence that a huge explosion occurred at the centre of our Galaxy.  This explosion was so powerful that it could only have come from one thing: the supermassive black hole today lying dormant in the middle of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*.

Continue reading An explosion at the centre of our Galaxy