Astronomers suspect that most galaxies have been involved in collisional encounters during their lifetimes. Galaxy-galaxy interactions stimulate the vigorous formation of stars, as gravit...

The Orion Nebula, shining brightly in the "sword" of the constellation Orion, is one of the most famous sights in the sky. The nebula is actually several clusters of hot young stars surr...

Cambridge, MA By combining the capabilities of several telescopes, astronomers have spotted extremely bright galaxies hiding in the distant, young universe. The newfound galaxies are int...

Cambridge, MA A spectacular new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope uncovers a small group of young stellar "siblings" in the southern portion of the Serpens cloud - located approx...

A few years ago, astronomers discovered a new kind of planet -- a so-called "hot Jupiter," a planet whose mass is similar to that of Jupiter, but whose orbit is very close to its star an...

Cambridge, MA Four galaxies are slamming into each other and kicking up billions of stars in one of the largest cosmic smash-ups ever observed.The clashing galaxies, spotted by NASA's Sp...

One of the single most important measurements of a celestial object is its distance, because distance enables astronomers to calculate key intrinsic properties like mass and luminosity. ...

Collisions between galaxies are thought to be common, with most galaxies probably involved in one or more encounters during their lifetimes. Our own Milky Way, for instance, is bound by g...

Cambridge, MA Astronomers using data from the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have found the largest negatively-charged molecule yet seen in space...

In 1774 the French astronomer Charles Messier published a catalog of 109 fuzzy-looking objects he discovered in the heavens. He thought they might be mistaken for comets, and today we kno...