<h2>Starry Sight</h2>
<p>On the outskirts of the Milky Way, about 14,000 light years from Earth, is a massive region highly conducive to star formation. But because it&#8217;s so far away and hidden behind clouds of dust and gas, astronomers have never been able to get a good look at it.</p>
<p>With a newly commissioned radio telescope, though, an international team of astronomers has now created a <a href="https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2019/04/15/firstlook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">higher-resolution map</a> of the area — and in the process, they found that one subregion is inexplicably far more efficient at star formation than the others.</p>
<h2>Generation Why?</h2>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2019/04/15/firstlook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>, the team&#8217;s research, which has been accepted for publication in the <em>Astrophysical Journal</em>, led to the discovery that the CTB 102 region has a star formation efficiency of between 5 and 10 percent — about the same as the Milky Way&#8217;s other giant molecular clouds.</p>
<p>However, one subregion of CTB 102 is far more efficient at forming stars, boasting an efficiency between 17 and 37 percent depending on how the team calculated the subregion&#8217;s mass.</p>
<p>Researcher Charles Kerton said in the press release that the team isn&#8217;t sure why this one subregion is so adept at forming stars — but they speculate it might have something to do with the kind of interstellar material within in. To find out for sure, though, they&#8217;d need to conduct further studies.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2019/04/15/firstlook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Astronomers take first, high-resolution look at huge star-forming region of Milky Way</a> [Iowa State University]</p>
<p><strong>More on stars:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/universe-first-stars-big-bang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scientists Now Know When the First Stars Formed in the Universe</a></em></p>


A new high-res map yielded an unexpected discovery.

Scientists find mysterious star-forming factory in Milky Way

Stellar Discovery

Astronomers have discovered that one subregion of the Milky Way is far more efficient at star formation than the others — and they don't know why.

Scientists Find Mysterious Star-Forming Factory In Milky Way

Everything is star-stuff — but especially this place!

<h2>Galaxy Quest</h2>
<p>Strap in and hold tight — you&#8217;re about to be teleported into a 360-degree rendering of the center of the Milky Way galaxy.</p>
<p>The ultra-high-definition visualization comes courtesy of data collected by the <a href="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2019/gcenter/animations.html">Chandra X-ray Observatory</a>, a space observatory that launched into orbit in 1999. NASA&#8217;s Ames supercomputer rendered the data as a stunning simulation you can experience from the comfort of home.</p>
<p>&#8220;This visualization shows the effects of massive stellar giants blowing off powerful winds in the region around the Galaxy&#8217;s supermassive black hole,&#8221; NASA said in <a href="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2019/gcenter/animations.html">a statement</a>.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wBxW2_B9_Is?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>Hot as Hell</h2>
<p>In the video, you can watch gases emit X-rays and see outbursts from gases that are near black holes. According to the NASA release, these gases are tens of millions of degrees Kelvin.</p>
<p>NASA hopes to use the animation to study the environment around black hole.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-03-galactic-center-visualization-star-power.html">Galactic center visualization delivers star power</a> [Chandra X-ray Center]<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong>More on the Milky Way:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-milky-way-beefier-side">New NASA Measurements: Milky Way Galaxy Is “On the Beefier Side&#8221;</a></em></p>


Blue represents the hottest gases, red is ultraviolet emission, while yellow shows the cooler gas with higher densities.

360-degree video puts you in the center of the Milky Way galaxy

360 Milky Way

This 360-degree visualization of the Milky Way galaxy comes courtesy of data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and NASA's Ames supercomputer.

360-Degree Video Puts You in the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy

It's peaceful — except for the supermassive black holes.

<h2>Dad Bod</h2>
<p>NASA performed a new measurement of the mass of the Milky Way galaxy using the Hubble and Gaia space telescopes. Not only do the new measurements show that our home galaxy is bigger than many of its peers, but also that the overwhelming majority of that weight is invisible dark matter — opening up tantalizing mysteries about what comprises the portions of the Milky Way we can&#8217;t see.</p>
<p>&#8220;The new mass estimate puts our galaxy on the beefier side, compared to other galaxies in the universe,&#8221; reads a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/what-does-the-milky-way-weigh-hubble-and-gaia-investigate">NASA blog post</a> about the research.</p>
<h2>Star Weight</h2>
<p>According to NASA&#8217;s new measurements, the Milky Way weighs in at about 1.5 trillion stellar masses, meaning it has 1.5 trillion times the weight of the Earth&#8217;s Sun.</p>
<p>The Milky way only has about 200 billion stars — plus a <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-hole-milky-way">black hole at its heart</a> that weighs as much as about another four million stars — which accounts for only about 13 percent of its mass.</p>
<h2>Dark Matter</h2>
<p>That means much of the rest of the Milky Way&#8217;s mass is something we can&#8217;t see — likely a mysterious substance physicists call dark matter.</p>
<p>&#8220;Most of the rest of the mass is locked up in dark matter, an invisible and mysterious substance that acts like scaffolding throughout the universe and keeps the stars in their galaxies,&#8221; reads the NASA blog post.</p>
<div>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/what-does-the-milky-way-weigh-hubble-and-gaia-investigate">What Does the Milky Way Weigh? Hubble and Gaia Investigate</a> [NASA]</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><strong>More on the Milky Way: </strong><em><a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/stellar-stream-milky-way">Scientists Found a “River of Stars” Flowing Through the Milky Way</a></em></p>
</div>


"The new mass estimate puts our galaxy on the beefier side, compared to other galaxies in the universe."

New NASA measurements: Milky Way galaxy is "on the beefier side"

Galaxy Quest

New data collected by NASA, using two space telescopes, shows that the vast majority of our galaxy's mass is dark matter.

New NASA Measurements: Milky Way Galaxy Is “On the Beefier Side”

New data shows that the vast majority of our galaxy's mass is dark matter.

<h2>Flow On</h2>
<p>The Milky Way is home to a variety of star clusters. Most of the time, its gravity quickly pulls these clusters apart, but some clusters have enough mass to remain stuck together, and sometimes the clusters form <a href="https://futurism.com/dark-energy-survey-discovers-remnants-other-galaxies-own" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stellar streams</a>, which are river-like stretches of stars that orbit the galaxy.</p>
<p>Now, researchers have <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-a-previously-unseen-giant-river-of-stars-flowing-past-earth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">identified</a> a billion-year-old stellar stream comprising nearly 4,000 stars — and it&#8217;s remarkably close to our Sun.</p>
<h2>Close Encounter</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2019/02/aa34950-18/aa34950-18.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> published in the journal <em>Astronomy and Astrophysics</em> on Thursday, a team from the University of Vienna details its discovery of this new stellar stream, which is approximately 1,300 light-years long and 160 light-years wide.</p>
<p>The team discovered the stream using data from the European Space Agency&#8217;s <a href="https://futurism.com/an-ambitious-spacecraft-is-set-to-advance-humanity-further-than-we-dreamed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gaia</a> satellite, and according to researcher João Alves, it&#8217;s been hiding in plain sight.</p>
<p>&#8220;Astronomers have been looking at, and through, this new stream for a long time, as it covers most of the night sky, but only now realize it is there,&#8221; he explained in a <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/aa-anr021519.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;As soon as we investigated this particular group of stars in more detail, we knew that we had found what we were looking for: A coeval, stream-like structure, stretching for hundreds of parsecs across a third of the entire sky,&#8221; researcher Verena Fürnkranz said. &#8220;It was so thrilling to be part of a new discovery.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Down River</h2>
<p>The researchers are already looking ahead to what new insights they may be able to glean from this river of stars, positing that it could lead to new information on how galaxies gain their stars, the discovery of new exoplanets, and an improved understanding of the Milky Way&#8217;s mass and gravitational field.</p>
<p>&#8220;Finding things close to home is very useful,&#8221; Alves said. &#8220;It means they are not too faint nor too blurred for further detailed exploration, as astronomers dream.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-a-previously-unseen-giant-river-of-stars-flowing-past-earth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Astronomers Have Detected a Previously Unnoticed &#8216;River of Stars&#8217; Flowing Past Earth</a> [<em>Science Alert</em>]</p>
<p><em><strong>More on stellar streams: <a href="https://futurism.com/dark-energy-survey-discovers-remnants-other-galaxies-own" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dark Energy Survey Discovers Remnants of Other Galaxies Within Our Own</a></strong></em></p>


"As soon as we investigated this particular group of stars in more detail, we knew that we had found what we were looking for."

Scientists found a “river of stars” flowing through the Milky Way

Stellar Stream

New research has uncovered a stellar stream comprising 4,000 stars flowing through the Milky Way remarkably close to the Earth.

Scientists Found a “River of Stars” Flowing Through the Milky Way

This stellar stream has been hiding in plain sight.

<h2>Galactic Warp</h2>
<p>It turns out that Milky Way galaxy looks different from the familiar image we&#8217;ve all come to know.</p>
<p>Our galaxy still has a bright central core around which a spiraling disk orbits, but that disk isn&#8217;t quite as tidy as scientists previously thought. Instead, it&#8217;s <a href="http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/02/galactic-twist-the-milky-ways-disk-is-warped">bent and warped out of shape</a>, according to a new 3D map of the galaxy described in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-018-0686-7">research published Monday</a> in the journal <em>Nature Astronomy</em>. The new map suggests that there&#8217;s a lot we don&#8217;t know about the universe, and that we can expect to <a href="https://futurism.com/science-explained-milky-way-really-look">keep updating our knowledge</a> about even the parts of the cosmos closest to us.</p>
<h2>Star Light</h2>
<p>The new map was built from a survey of 1,339 stars called &#8220;classical Cepheids.&#8221; Often, attempts to plot stars&#8217; location in the cosmos are stymied by misleading measurements. Sometimes astronomers will conclude that a particularly-bright star is closer to us than it actually, is or that dimly-lit stars must be far away. But the rhythmic pulsations of light given off by Cepheids allow astronomers to determine precisely how far away they are just by measuring their brightness, <a href="http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/02/galactic-twist-the-milky-ways-disk-is-warped">according to <em>Astronomy</em></a>.</p>
<p>Using data from WISE, a NASA program seeking to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main/index.html">survey the entire sky in infrared</a>, the team of Chinese and Australian astronomers observed that the locations of these classical Cepheids suggest a very different galactic structure than we&#8217;re used to.</p>
<h2>The Big Picture</h2>
<p>The researchers didn&#8217;t investigate <em>why</em> the galaxy looks the way it does, but they did fathom a guess. A typical model of a spiral galaxy like ours, whether it&#8217;s<strong> </strong>in the latest NASA simulation or a sci-fi movie, generally shows a gigantic central mass around which long, spiraling arms gently orbit. But the astronomers behind this new paper suggest that the various interconnected pieces of the galaxy have a more complex relationship than that — as the galaxy&#8217;s central core spins on its axis, it may be dragging against the outer disks and pulling them out of shape.</p>
<p>Whatever the reason, it&#8217;s clear that <a href="https://futurism.com/astronomers-have-begun-mapping-the-structure-of-the-far-side-of-the-milky-way">we don&#8217;t as much</a> about our cosmic home turf as we once thought.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/02/galactic-twist-the-milky-ways-disk-is-warped">Galactic twist: The Milky Way&#8217;s disk is warped</a> [<em>Astronomy.com</em>]</p>
<p><em><strong>More on the Milky Way: <a href="https://futurism.com/weigh-galaxy-dark-matter">A New Trick Lets Us Weigh The Galaxy. It’s The First Step Toward Figuring Out What It’s Made Of</a></strong></em></p>


It turns out our galaxy isn't the flat disk we once thought.

The Milky Way is a lot more warped than scientists thought

Distinct Kink

A new 3D map of the Milky Way galaxy shows a different structure than scientists expected. It turns out the outer disk is all warped out of shape.

The Milky Way is a Lot More Warped Than Scientists Thought

A new 3D map shows that our galaxy isn't nearly as tidy as we thought.

<h2>Black Hole</h2>
<p>Researchers have captured the best-ever image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, by using a new computer model to see through the haze of plasma surrounding the cosmic monster.</p>
<p>&#8220;The galactic centre is full of matter around the black hole, which acts like frosted glass that we have to look through to see the black hole,&#8221; Max Planck Institute researcher Eduardo Ros <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2191429-our-galaxys-supermassive-black-hole-may-be-spewing-matter-right-at-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told <em>New Scientist</em></a><em> </em>of the discovery.</p>
<figure id="attachment_148740" style="width: 785px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-148740" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2019/01/blackhole.png" alt="" width="785" height="803" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Credit: The Astrophysical Journal</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Powerful Jet</h2>
<p>The fresh image of the black hole, which is twice the resolution of the previous best one, is described in a <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aaf732/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new paper</a> in <em>The Astrophysical Journal. </em>Researchers used 13 powerful telescopes around the world to capture the image and have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/11/scientists-close-to-capturing-first-image-of-black-hole-at-the-centre-of-the-milky-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener">teasing its release</a> since earlier in January.</p>
<p>According to <em>New Scientist, </em>astrophysicists had assumed that such a black hole would show a gigantic jet of matter and radiation. Surprisingly, they didn&#8217;t find such a jet coming out of the Milky Way&#8217;s monstrous black hole. Either it doesn&#8217;t have one — or they can&#8217;t see it because it&#8217;s pointed directly at us.</p>
<h2>No Danger</h2>
<p>Even if that were the case, Ros cautioned, it&#8217;s not cause for alarm.</p>
<p>&#8220;If anything is there, it will be a length that is 1,000 times less than the distance to us,&#8221; Ros told <em>New Scientist</em>. &#8220;There is no danger at all – we should not fear the supermassive black hole.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2191429-our-galaxys-supermassive-black-hole-may-be-spewing-matter-right-at-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Our Galaxy’s Supermassive Black Hole May Be Spewing Matter Right at Us</a> [<i>New Scientist</i>]</p>
<p><strong><em>More on Sagittarius A*: </em><a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-hole-milky-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Image Confirms a Black Hole Is Swallowing Our Galaxy</a></strong></p>


Here's the best-ever image of the black hole devouring our galaxy

Black Hole Sun

Researchers have captured the best-ever image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Here’s the Best-Ever Image of the Black Hole Devouring Our Galaxy

"We should not fear the supermassive black hole."

<h2>Galactic Collision</h2>
<p>An upcoming galactic collision is likely to wake the black hole at the center of the Milky Way and turn our home galaxy into a quasar — it could even fling our solar system into intergalactic space, according to new research.</p>
<p>&#8220;This phenomenon will generate powerful jets of high energy radiation emanating from just outside the black hole,&#8221; lead author Marius Cautun, a researcher at Durham University, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-01-catastrophic-galactic-collision-solar-space.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a press release</a>. &#8220;While this will not affect our Solar System, there is a small chance that we might not escape unscathed from the collision between the two galaxies which could knock us out of the Milky Way and into interstellar space.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Black Hole Sun</h2>
<p>Astronomers long thought that the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy that slid into the Milky Way&#8217;s vicinity about 1.5 billion years ago, would settle into an orbit around our galaxy.</p>
<p>But according to the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/483/2/2185/5181341">new paper</a>, which was published in the journal <em>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</em>, the Large Magellanic Cloud has far more dark matter than previously believed. That means it has much greater mass and is more likely to slam into our galaxy than orbit it.</p>
<p>The epic collision will likely <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-hole-milky-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener">awaken the dormant black hole at the center of the Milky Way</a>, causing it to gobble nearby matter and swell as much as <strong>10</strong> times in size.</p>
<h2>Widening Gyre</h2>
<p>The good news is that the galactic collision won&#8217;t take place for two billion years — long after anyone currently living on Earth is gone.</p>
<p>But while we&#8217;ll escape unscathed, the same can&#8217;t be said about our galaxy.</p>
<p>&#8220;While two billion years is an extremely long time compared to a human lifetime, it is a very short time on cosmic timescales,&#8221; Cautun said. &#8220;The destruction of the Large Magellanic Cloud, as it is devoured by the Milky Way, will wreak havoc with our galaxy,&#8221; turning it &#8220;into an &#8216;active galactic nucleus&#8217; or quasar.&#8221;</p>
<div>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-01-catastrophic-galactic-collision-solar-space.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catastrophic Galactic Collision Could Send Solar System Flying Into Space</a> [<em>Phys.org</em>]</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><strong><em>More on the Milky Way: </em></strong><a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-hole-milky-way">New Image Confirms a Black Hole is Swallowing Our Galaxy</a></p>
</div>


Galactic collision could fling our solar system into intergalactic space

Bad Trip

An upcoming galactic collision could wake the Milky Way's black hole and fling our solar system into intergalactic space, according to new research.

Galactic Collision Could Fling Our Solar System Into Intergalactic Space

The collision "could knock us out of the Milky Way."

<h2>Around and Around</h2>
<p>Seems like everything in the universe is orbiting <em>something</em>. The Moon orbits the Earth, which orbits the Sun, which orbits the center of the Milky Way.</p>
<p>But it doesn&#8217;t stop there. Galaxies can even orbit other galaxies, and now, an international team of astronomers has discovered a new satellite galaxy around our own Milky Way — and it&#8217;s a weird one.</p>
<h2>Howdy, Neighbor</h2>
<p>According to a <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.04082" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paper</a> published in <em>arXiv</em> earlier in November, the researchers discovered this new dwarf galaxy, which they call Antlia 2 — or &#8220;Ant 2&#8221; — while sifting through data collected by the European Space Agency’s <a href="https://futurism.com/an-ambitious-spacecraft-is-set-to-advance-humanity-further-than-we-dreamed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gaia satellite</a>.</p>
<p>As for how an entire galaxy escaped detection for so long, especially given its close proximity to our own, a couple of factors come into play. For one, Ant 2 is located behind the Milky Way’s disc — an ideal hiding spot. It&#8217;s also extremely low in density, giving off very little light.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a ghost of a galaxy,&#8221; researcher Gabriel Torrealba said in a <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/gaia-spots-a-ghost-galaxy-next-door" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>. &#8220;Objects as diffuse as Ant 2 have simply not been seen before. Our discovery was only possible thanks to the quality of the Gaia data.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Galactic Weirdo</h2>
<p>Ant 2 isn&#8217;t the only galaxy known to orbit our own, but it is &#8220;an oddball,&#8221; according to researcher Matthew Walker. It&#8217;s relatively massive — roughly a third of the size of the the Milky Way — and the researchers are perplexed as to how it might have gotten that way.</p>
<p>&#8220;Normally, as galaxies lose mass to the Milky Way’s tides, they shrink, not grow,&#8221; researcher Sergey Koposov said in the press release.</p>
<p>Knowing that this unusual galaxy exists has left the astronomers curious about what else they might be missing in our galactic backyard. “We are wondering whether this galaxy is just the tip of an iceberg,&#8221; said Walker, &#8220;and the Milky Way is surrounded by a large population of nearly invisible dwarfs similar to this one.”</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/gaia-spots-a-ghost-galaxy-next-door" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gaia Spots a ‘Ghost’ Galaxy Next Door</a> [University of Cambridge]</p>
<p><em><strong>More on Gaia: <a href="https://futurism.com/an-ambitious-spacecraft-is-set-to-advance-humanity-further-than-we-dreamed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">An Ambitious Spacecraft Is Set to Advance Humanity Further Than We Dreamed</a></strong></em></p>


The "oddball" satellite has astronomers wondering what else they're missing.

Scientists discover a "ghost of a galaxy" orbiting the Milky Way

Spooky Satellite

Researchers looking at Gaia satellite data have discovered a new galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, and not only is it massive, it's also "ghostly."

Scientists Discover a “Ghost of a Galaxy” Orbiting the Milky Way

It's both massive and extremely diffuse. 

<h2><strong>I Walk a Lonely Road</strong></h2>
<p>Polish astronomers just discovered two new planets in our galaxy. That’s cool news on its own, but these planets are different from most. Unlike almost all known planets, <em><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2184850-two-new-rogue-planets-that-do-not-orbit-stars-have-been-discovered/">New Scientist reports</a></em>, these two planets don’t orbit a star.</p>
<p>Instead, they drift aimlessly through the cold, dead void of space — and presumably spend their time writing angsty poetry.</p>
<h2><strong>Down The Line</strong></h2>
<p>Free-floating planets are harder to spot than those that orbit stars — many planetary discoveries happen when an astronomer looks at the sky and says “hey, what’s that thing passing in front of that star?” But that’s not an option here.</p>
<p>To spot these two new wanderers, Warsaw University astronomers used a technique called <a href="https://futurism.com/extragalactic-planets-real">gravitational microlensing</a>. Their research, <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.00441v1">published last week</a> on the preprint server ArXiv, describes how they used the technique to find points where the light of faraway stars was warped and distorted by the gravitational pull of a planet that had drifted in that light’s path.</p>
<p>Because the evidence of these two planets is so circumstantial, scientists aren’t sure how large they are. Depending on how far away they are, <em>New Scientist</em> noted that one of the planets could be anywhere from two to 20 times the mass of Jupiter. The other one is anywhere from 2.3 to 23 times more massive than Earth.</p>
<h2><strong>I Walk Alone</strong></h2>
<p>The scientists who found these planets don’t want to rule out the chance that they might be habitable.  But without the light and heat of a nearby star, that seems unlikely.</p>
<p>Either way, the researchers suggested that there may be more of these lonely little fellas than there are stars in the galaxy — with <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-laser-alien-life">better surveys of the galaxy</a> we might be finding more and more in the near future.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2184850-two-new-rogue-planets-that-do-not-orbit-stars-have-been-discovered/">Two new rogue planets that do not orbit stars have been discovered</a> [<em>New Scientist</em>]</p>
<p><strong><em>More on space: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/galaxies-merge-black-holes-hearts-fuse">When Galaxies Merge, the Black Holes in Their Hearts Fuse Together</a></em></strong></p>


They're the "weird goth kids" of the galaxy.

These lonely planets drift through space without orbiting stars

I Need Space

Astronomers from Warsaw University just found two new planets that are drifting freely through the galaxy without following any stars.

These Lonely Planets Drift Through Space Without Orbiting Stars

There may be more of these lone wanderers than stars in the galaxy.

<h2>Dark Energy Discovery</h2>
<p><a href="https://futurism.com/dark-energy-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Dark Energy Survey (DES)</a> is an international, collaborative effort to map the Universe and detect its many phenomena — <a href="https://futurism.com/astronomers-have-uncovered-evidence-of-dynamical-dark-energy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notably, dark energy and dark matter</a>. Recently, the DES discovered a remarkable set of intruders in the Milky Way: 11 new streams of stars that originate from outside of our galaxy. These &#8220;stellar streams&#8221; are made up of the star remnants of nearby star clusters or dwarf galaxies, which have been altered or destroyed by the gravity of the Milky Way.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re interested in these streams because they teach us about the formation and structure of the Milky Way and its dark matter halo,&#8221; said University of Chicago graduate student Nora Shipp in a statement, <a href="https://www.seeker.com/astronomy/dark-energy-survey-finds-new-stellar-streams-infiltrating-the-milky-way">as reported by </a><i><a href="https://www.seeker.com/astronomy/dark-energy-survey-finds-new-stellar-streams-infiltrating-the-milky-way">Seeker</a>. &#8220;</i>Stellar streams give us a snapshot of a larger galaxy being built out of smaller ones.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_120088" style="width: 696px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-120088 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/01/DES.jpg" alt="A portion of the sky mapped by the DES. Stellar streams are blue, yellow, and red ribbons. Image Credit: Dark Energy Survey" width="696" height="695" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A portion of the sky mapped by the DES, with stellar streams appearing as blue, yellow, and red ribbons. Image Credit: Dark Energy Survey</figcaption></figure>
<p>This is especially true because the majority of the stellar streams were found in the Milky Way halo, which appears to be primarily comprised of dark matter. While you cannot see dark matter, astronomers can detect its <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/watch-why-the-universe-needs-dark-energy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gravity tugging on surrounding cosmic matter</a>.</p>
<p>Using one of the world&#8217;s most powerful cameras, alongside telescopic technology to image and record data from an enormous area, the DES is focused on further exploring and understanding dark matter and dark energy, which remains one of <a href="https://futurism.com/running-places-dark-matter-particles/">the universe&#8217;s biggest enigmas</a>. This recent discovery is particularly exciting in how it could expand this understanding.</p>
<h2>Alien Infiltration</h2>
<p>These alien ribbons of remnant stars are typically very difficult to find. Before these 11 were found, only 23 total had been previously identified. While there are about 1,000 to 10,000 main sequence stars in each stream, &#8220;In big picture terms, these are small numbers of stars compared to the total number of stars in the Milky Way halo,&#8221; Joan Najita, from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), said in an interview with <i>Seeker. </i></p>
<p>Identifying and studying these streams can expand our knowledge of how the Milky Way was formed. Many think that our galaxy&#8217;s halo, made up of dark matter, globular star clusters, and gas, could have been largely made up of previous star streams that were gravitationally pulled from nearby galaxies.</p>
<figure id="attachment_120127" style="width: 1264px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-120127 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/01/stellarstreams.jpg" alt="" width="1264" height="858" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The full area of sky mapped by the Dark Energy Survey and the 11 newly discovered stellar streams. Four of the streams shown — ATLAS, Molonglo, Phoenix, and Tucana III — were previously known. Image Credit: Dark Energy Survey</figcaption></figure>
<p>Identifying and studying these streams can also allow scientists to <a href="https://futurism.com/new-explanation-dark-energy-tiny-fluctuations-time-space/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trace the distribution of dark matter</a>, locating where its powerful gravity have tugged on passing stellar matter.</p>
<p>And in the coming years, the completion of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) in Chile will allow astronomers to combine these technologies, imaging the universe in greater detail than ever before.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the 2020s, LSST will deliver a yet wider and deeper view of the Universe — from distant galaxies, to our Milky Way, down to the solar system,&#8221; said Adam Bolton, the associate director for the Community Science and Data Center at NOAO. He told <em>Seeker</em> that these capabilities will display the universe “not just as a still photo, but as a high-definition movie that will capture the rich variability of the sky.”</p>


The Dark Energy Survey has discovered the alien ribbons of remnant stars invading the Milky Way.

Dark energy survey discovers remnants of other galaxies within our own

Off World

The Dark Energy Survey recently found 11 new stellar streams, remnants of nearby star clusters or dwarf galaxies pulled by gravity into our galaxy.

/Milky Way