Witnessing the Milky Way is a profound experience. This article highlights ten premier global locations for stargazing. From ...

The Milky Way could be coming to a sky near you. The billions of stars comprising our home galaxy should appear especially vibrant in late May as the band arcs across the night sky. The reason has ...

All the life we know of in the entire universe is squeezed onto a tiny rock, floating in a minor arm of the Milky Way. There are billions of other planets with the potential to support life. But what ...

Though the Milky Way is generally always visible from Earth, certain times of year are better for stargazers to catch a glimpse of the band of billions of stars. "Milky Way season," when the galaxy's ...

Hypervelocity stars have, since the 1920s, been an important tool that allows astronomers to study the properties of the ...

The universe is filled with immense structures of mind-crushing proportions. They wield energies that vastly exceed our most fevered dreams. Yet from Earth these configurations can barely be seen at ...

On Jan. 15, 2025, the Gaia spacecraft took its last image. Then the craft ran a final round of engineering tests, fired its ...

Florida is home to three listed "dark sky" locations that may offer the best views of the Milky Way's galactic center. The Milky Way is our home galaxy with a disc of stars that spans more than ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Late in the evening of October 5, 1923, Edwin Hubble sat at the eyepiece of the Hooker telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory atop ...

New supercomputer simulations suggest the Milky Way could be surrounded by dozens more faint, undetected satellite galaxies—up to 100 more than we currently know. These elusive "orphan" galaxies have ...

Are you wondering if you can see the Milky Way in Texas? There's still time. Here's what you need to know to see this phenomenon. The Milky Way is a vast spiral galaxy, composed of stars, dust, and ...

A new study shows how Milky Way chemical tracks emerge from shifting star formation and gas supply, reshaping ideas about the ...