While astronomers have studied lightweight and heavyweight black holes for decades, the evidence for black holes with intermediate masses has been much harder to come by. Now, astronomers... — full story
The Universe's infant galaxies enjoyed rapid growth spurts forming stars like our sun at a rate of up to 50 stars a year, according to scientists at Durham University... — full story
Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic... — full story
'Matter is not distributed uniformly in the Universe,' says Masayuki Tanaka from ESO, who led the new study. 'In our cosmic vicinity, stars form in galaxies and galaxies usually form... — full story
The most distant galaxy cluster yet has been discovered by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical and infrared telescopes. The cluster is located about 10.2... — full story
The Milky Way's tiny but tough galactic neighbourIn the new ESO image, Barnard's Galaxy glows beneath a sea of foreground stars in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer). At the relatively close distance of... — full story
Sky merger yields sparkling dividendsA recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures what appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a pair of spiral galaxies that resemble... — full story
Quite a few distant galaxies turn out to be cosmic delivery rooms. Large numbers of massive stars are born in the hearts of these starburst galaxies, and later explode as supernovae.... — full story
Herschel views deep-space pearls on a cosmic stringHerschel has delivered spectacular vistas of cold gas clouds lying near the plane of the Milky Way, revealing intense, unexpected activity. The dark, cool region is dotted with stellar... — full story
The most ambitious attempt yet to trace the history of the universe has seen 'first light.' The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey... — full story