Some galaxies undergo a rapid star formation phase, losing stellar gases to intergalactic space, others choose to recycle, thereby extending their star forming lifespans (NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)) It sounds like an over-hyped public service announcement: If you don’t recycle, you’ll...

The black hole lurking inside galaxy M87 has a mass of 6.6 billion suns, according to today's announcement (NASA) Fresh from the Department Of I Really Shouldn’t Have Eaten That Last Binary, astronomers attending the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, Wash., have announced a supermassive...

Artists impression of an ultra-luminous galaxy heating the surrounding dust (JAXA/ISAS/LIRA) In the early 1980′s, NASA’s Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) detected a number of unknown objects lurking in the depths of the cosmos. At the time, these IRAS objects stirred speculation in...

The M87 black hole blasts relativistic plumes of gas 5000 ly from the centre of the galaxy (NASA) I just spent 5 minutes trying to think up a title to this post. I knew what I wanted to say, but the subject is so “out there” I’m not sure if any title would be adequate. As it turns out,...

Take a good look, this is one of the most mysterious, massive objects ever discovered in the cosmos. We don’t really know what it is, but this thing is huge, spanning 55,000 light years across (the approximate radius of our Milky Way). What makes this all the more intriguing is the fact that this...