Milky Way

Gaia, Europe’s Milky Way–mapping spacecraft, shut down earlier this year. It was arguably the most important—and most overlooked—astronomy project of the 21st century

Some stars streaking through the Milky Way at millions of kilometers per hour probably trace back to a supermassive black hole in a neighboring galaxy

NASA’s astrobiology ambitions are at risk of collapsing under the White House’s proposed budget. But your voice can make a difference

According to new simulations, many, even most, planets get ejected from their star early in their history

With radio and infrared telescopes, astronomers can pierce the dusty veil of our galaxy and map its farthest reaches

It’s neither fast nor food, but a spectacular object called HH 30 looks appetizing for astronomers in a new image from the James Webb Space Telescope

According to a tenet scientists call the cosmological principle, our place in space is in no way exceptional. But recent observations could overturn this long-held assumption

Twenty years ago today a magnetar’s epic tantrum made our planet ring like a bell from tens of thousands of light-years away

With billions of stars in the Milky Way, some nomenclature standardization is necessary

Barnard 68 is often mistaken for a hole in space, but it’s actually a dense, opaque cloud of dust—for now

This blazingly fast star is shooting through the Milky Way with a planet in tow

If you’ve ever seen faces in clouds, these heavenly entities will leave you haunted