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The giant radio jets stretching six million light-years across and an enormous supermassive black hole at the heart of spiral galaxy J23453268−0449256, as imaged by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope.
Cosmic anomaly hints at frightening future for Milky Way
A terrifying glimpse at one potential fate of our Milky Way galaxy has come to light thanks to the discovery of a cosmic anomaly that challenges our understanding of the universe. An international team of astronomers led by CHRIST University...
New research suggests at least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were caused by a nearby supernova. Pictured is an example of one of these stellar explosions, Supernova 1987a (centre), within a neighbouring galaxy to our Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Violent supernovae 'triggered at least two Earth extinctions'
At least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were likely caused by the "devastating" effects of nearby supernova explosions, a new study suggests. Researchers at Keele University say these super-powerful blasts – caused by the death of a...
The "remarkable" XRT 200515 cosmic explosion observed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Mystery of 'remarkable' cosmic explosion that lay hidden for years
The "needle in the haystack" discovery of a powerful explosion from a mysterious unknown object outside our galaxy has excited astronomers. It went unnoticed for years within a vast, two decade-long archive of observations by NASA's Chandra X-ray...
The newly-discovered giant radio galaxy ‘Inkathazo’. The glowing plasma jets, as seen by the MeerKAT telescope, are shown in red and yellow. The starlight from other surrounding galaxies can be seen in the background.
'Troublesome' radio galaxy 32 times size of Milky Way spotted
Astronomers have discovered an extraordinary new giant radio galaxy with plasma jets 32 times the size of our Milky Way. Measuring 3.3 million light-years from end-to-end, the cosmic megastructure was spotted by South Africa's MeerKAT telescope and...
Image of Arp220 from the Hubble Space Telescope showing the large scale structure of the merging system.
Clever trick to cook stars like Christmas puds detected for first time
The missing ingredient for cooking up stars in the same way you might steam your Christmas pudding has been spotted for the first time by astronomers. Much like a pressure cooker has a weight on top of its lid to keep the pressure in and get your...
This graphic offers a glimpse of the history of the Universe, as we currently understand it.
Dark energy 'doesn’t exist' so can't be pushing 'lumpy' Universe apart – study
One of the biggest mysteries in science – dark energy – doesn't actually exist, according to researchers looking to solve the riddle of how the Universe is expanding. For the past 100 years, physicists have generally assumed that the cosmos is...
The two prize winners.
GJI Student Paper Award Winners 2024
Geophysical Journal International (GJI) is delighted to announce the two winners of the 2024 Student Paper Award. They are Théo Santos for his first author paper, “Refining Tomography with Generative Neural Networks trained from Geodynamics”, and...
Earth-bound asteroids ‘could be tracked more precisely’ with new equation
Identifying asteroids on a potential collision course with Earth could be made easier thanks to an advancement in how to track their orbits more precisely. Taking into account a phenomenon first identified by Sir Isaac Newton and later confirmed by...
WEAVE data overlaid on a James Webb Space Telescope image of Stephan's Quintet, with green contours showing radio data from LOFAR.
2 MILLION mph galaxy smash-up seen in unprecedented detail
A massive collision of galaxies sparked by one travelling at a scarcely-believable 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h) has been seen in unprecedented detail by one of Earth's most powerful telescopes. The dramatic impact was observed in Stephan's...
Amount of stars (white) produced in universes with different dark energy densities. Clockwise, from top left, no dark energy, same dark energy density as in our Universe, 10 and 30 times the dark energy density in our Universe.
A formula for life? New model calculates chances of intelligent beings in our Universe and beyond
The chances of intelligent life emerging in our Universe – and in any hypothetical ones beyond it – can be estimated by a new theoretical model which has echoes of the famous Drake Equation. This was the formula that American astronomer Dr Frank...
Radio image of Sagittarius A* in the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.
First picture of Milky Way black hole ‘may not be accurate’
The first picture of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy may not be a true reflection of its appearance, new research suggests. Astronomers led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) say their analysis...
The newly-discovered GS-NDG-9422 galaxy appears as a faint blur in this James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image.
Webb discovers 'weird' galaxy with gas outshining its stars
The discovery of a "weird" and unprecedented galaxy in the early Universe could "help us understand how the cosmic story began", astronomers say. GS-NDG-9422 (9422) was found approximately one billion years after the Big Bang and stood out because it...