WASHINGTON—Observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are upending the understanding of the early universe, indicating the presence of large and mature but remarkably compact galaxies teeming with stars far sooner than scientists had considered possible. Astronomers said data obtained by the telescope reveals what appear to be six big galaxies as mature as our…

CARNARVON, South Africa—South African officials and scientists on Monday celebrated a milestone towards building the world’s largest radio astronomy instrument, which is co-hosted with Australia and aims to unlock mysteries of the universe. The construction launch outside the remote town of Carnarvon, Northern Cape, marks the next phase of developing a complex instrument aimed at…

An international team of scientists, led by an astrophysicist from the University of Sydney, has found the leftovers of a colossal cannibalistic feeding event in the far outskirts of the Andromeda galaxy. Honor students Tim Adams from Sydney University and Yuan Li from the University of Auckland discovered a structure of stars, known as a globular cluster (GC),…

WASHINGTON—Most galaxies are built around humongous black holes. While many of these are comparatively docile, like the one at our Milky Way’s center, some are fierce—guzzling surrounding material and unleashing huge and blazingly bright jets of high-energy particles far into space. Using data from the recently deployed Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) orbiting observatory, researchers…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA’s Webb Space Telescope is finding bright, early galaxies that until now were hidden from view, including one that may have formed a mere 350 million years after the cosmic-creating Big Bang. Astronomers said Thursday that if the results are verified, this newly discovered throng of stars would beat the most distant galaxy…

Out of a vast galactic menagerie of space images, a pair of celestial “angel wings” was discovered by researchers—the stunning spectacle, composed of trails of stars and dust, formed as a result of two galaxies colliding. The picture, taken by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, shows a nearly symmetrical object in the VV689 system, in the…

British scientists have created a map of 4.4 million galaxies by scanning more than a quarter of the world’s northern skies. They are revealed in astonishing detail—providing spectacular images of our universe. Most are billions of light-years away. They harbor massive black holes and rapidly growing new stars. In rare cases, two separate groups are…

Supermassive black holes are exotic astrophysical objects harbored at the centers of galaxies. Their masses can reach 1 million to 1 billion times larger than our sun, and their gravitational force is so strong that even light cannot escape; hence the name “black” holes. Dark matter is a mysterious form of matter that lurks in…