How the universe got its structure

The universe is full of billions of galaxies. Why do we see so much structure in the universe today? A 10-year survey of tens of thousands of galaxies has provided a new approach to answering this fundamental mystery.

Large amounts of O2 in ancient star's atmosphere

Astronomers have detected large amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere of one of the oldest and most elementally depleted stars known. This finding provides an important clue on how oxygen was produced in the first generations of stars.

100,000 Supernovae Exploded Near the Core of the Milky Way

Data obtained by VLT showed evidence of massive stars bursts billions of years ago in the galaxy’s center. The more recent burst was so intense that resulted in 100,000 supernova explosions. These findings are inconsistent with our notions that stars formed continuously in our galaxy.

A Galaxy That Formed Less than a Billion Years After the BB

Astronomers have spotted an unusually distant star-forming galaxy, the light of which took a whopping 13 billion years to reach Earth. Perhaps most incredibly, however, the galaxy was observed directly, without gravitational lensing.

Astronomers Uncover Dozens of Previously Unknown Galaxies

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Tokyo used ALMA to view 39 previously-undiscovered ancient galaxies,  a find that could have major implications for astronomy and cosmology.

Elusive molecule, first in Universe, detected in space

Within 100,000 years of the Big Bang, the very first molecule emerged, an improbable marriage of helium and hydrogen known as a helium hydride ion, or HeH+. It was the beginning of chemistry.

Astronomers discover 83 supermassive black holes

Astronomers from Japan, Taiwan and U.S. have discovered 83 quasars powered by supermassive black holes in the distant universe, from a time when the universe was only 5 percent of its age.

Astronomers Discover Three New Globular Clusters in Milky Way

A duo of astronomers has spotted three new globular clusters in the Milky Way’s bulge, a 10,000-light-year-wide central structure made primarily of old stars, gas and dust.

Deepest Image of the Universe Ever Taken

It has taken researchers almost three years to produce this deepest image of the Universe ever taken from space, by recovering a large quantity of ‘lost’ light around the largest galaxies in the iconic Hubble Ultra-Deep Field.

Quantum structures in super-chilled helium may mirror early universe

For the first time, researchers have documented the long-predicted occurrence of 'walls bound by strings' in superfluid helium-3. The existence of such an object may explain how the universe cooled down.

Fossil from the Big Bang discovered

A relic cloud of gas, orphaned after the Big Bang, has been discovered in the distant universe by astronomers using the world's most powerful optical telescope, the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii.

Largest galaxy proto-supercluster found

Astronomers have discovered a titanic structure in the early universe, just two billion years after the Big Bang - a galaxy proto-supercluster, nicknamed Hyperion.

Star formation underway 250 million years after Big Bang

Astronomers have observed a galaxy 13.3 billion light years away that includes stars that must have been shining just 250 million years after the Big Bang.

A New 3D Map of the Early Universe Reveals 4,000 Infant Galaxies

Astronomers from Lancaster University have modeled conditions during the earliest moments of the cosmos.

Simple telescope picks up hint of the Universe’s first stars, dark matter

A small team of researchers announced that its correspondingly small telescope picked up a signal produced by the very first stars in our Universe.