MIT physicists discovered stars near the edge of the Milky Way travel more slowly than those closer to its center a surprise suggesting our galaxy’s gravitational core may have less dark matter than previously thought.
The Gaia space probe unveiled its latest discoveries on Monday in its quest to map the Milky Way in unprecedented detail, surveying nearly two million stars and revealing mysterious "starquakes" which sweep across the fiery giants like vast tsunamis.
Scientists used ESA's Gaia satellite to find the largest structure in the Milky Way, a hydrogen filament, which they called Maggie after the longest river in Colombia, the Rio Magdalena.
Rogue planets are difficult to find. Astronomers must use the most sensitive imaging devices to find them. A group of astronomers, led by an astronomer in France, have uncovered up to 170 new rogue planets, the largest discovery of its kind.
A new set of data from ESA's Gaia satellite has suggested that the galaxies nearby the Milky Way are newcomers to the universe rather than satellite galaxies.