Space

It makes sense that massive black holes lurking in galactic nuclei and weighing millions of Suns can disrupt stars that come too close. Astrophysicists say that the black hole’s gravity pulls harder…

At the cores of many galaxies, supermassive black holes expel powerful jets of particles at nearly the speed of light. Just how they perform this feat has long been one of the mysteries of…

Data from the ESA/NASA spacecraft SOHO shows clearly that powerful starquakes ripple around the Sun in the wake of mighty solar flares that explode above its surface. The observations give solar…

Huge star streams in the outskirts of two nearby spiral galaxies have allowed astronomers to obtain a panoramic overview of ' galactic cannibalism' similar to that involving the Sagittarius dwarf…

Using NASA, Japanese, and European X-ray satellites, a team of Japanese astronomers has discovered that our galaxy’s central black hole let loose a powerful flare three centuries ago. The finding…

By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster.…

UK astronomers have produced the most sensitive infrared map of the distant Universe ever undertaken. Combining data over a period of three years, they have produced an image containing over 100,000…

A study of active and inactive galaxies by Paul Westoby, Carole Mundell and Ivan Baldry from the Astrophysics Research Institute of Liverpool John Moores University has given new insights into the…

Scientists have discovered a possible terrestrial-type planet orbiting a star in the constellation Leo. The new planet lies at a distance of 30 light years from the Earth and has a mass five times…

A rare type of galax with a higher number of X-rays than thought possible has been detected. Quasars are cosmic 'engines' that pump energy into their surroundings - theorists speculate that an…