Milky Way Archives

Top: Extinction map of the local ISM viewed top-down taken from Dharmawardena et al. (2024). The Sun (yellow circle) is at X, Y = 0, 0 and the Galactic centre is at X, Y = 8.2, 0 kpc. The twelve targets (cf. Table 1) are represented by colored stars. The two stars analyzed in this paper are shown in red and the other ten are shown in blue. The small gray star near the center of this figure indicates 10 Lac (AV = 0.21 mag), which was used as a reference star. The contours represent extinction in steps of 0.2 mag. Bottom: Dust map of the Milky Way galactic plane derived from Gaia photometry (see Andrae et al. (2023) for more details) with the twelve targets following the same color scheme as above. Note that some of the targets overlap in this projection. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Investigating Silicate, Carbon, And Water In The Diffuse Interstellar Medium: The First Shots From WISCI

by Keith CowingJune 26, 2025June 26, 2025

The dusty interstellar medium (ISM) of the Milky Way is distributed in a complex, cloudy structure.

The Milky Way beyond Earth's horizon iss072e574660 (Jan. 29, 2025) larger image

Astronauts and Explorers, Astronomy & Telescopes, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Space Stations

Looking Outward From High Above Our Home World

by Keith CowingJune 17, 2025June 17, 2025

The Milky Way appears beyond Earth’s horizon in this celestial photograph captured by NASA astronaut Don Pettit using a camera with low light and long duration settings pointed out a […]

Comparison between the database EHS masses with recomputed values adopting the database stellar radii and surface gravities (see text for details). The grey dotted line is the (1:1)-relation. If the database were fully consistent, all points would lie on this diagonal line. The most massive EHS are not shown for clarity reasons. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Interstellar, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

The Gaia Spectroscopic Catalogue Of Exoplanets And Host Stars

by Keith CowingJune 4, 2025June 4, 2025

Complete, accurate, and precise catalogues of exoplanet host star (EHS) properties are essential to deriving high-quality exoplanet parameters. This paper aims at homogeneously parameterising EHS and their exoplanets, using Gaia […]

ALMA-images of the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone. The research team suspects that protoplanetary discs are forming in its clouds. Credit Fengwei XU (PKU); ALMA Partnership; Laura Pérez (NRAO)

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

A Multitude Of Protoplanetary Discs Detected In The Galactic Center

by Keith CowingMay 16, 2025May 16, 2025

For decades, astronomers have discovered hundreds of protoplanetary disks – structures believed to represent the early stages of our own solar system.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

Three Dimensional Map Of Our Galaxy’s Interstellar Dust

by Keith CowingMarch 16, 2025March 16, 2025

When we observe distant celestial objects, there is a possible catch: Is that star I am observing really as reddish as it appears? Or does the star merely look reddish, […]

Integrated maps of the observed strip. The left map shows the gas column density derived from the Hi-GAL observations. The circles there indicate the position and effective beam size of the spectra discussed in Fig. 4. The following maps give the line-integrated intensities of CO 2-1, 13CO 2-1, C18O 2-1, and [C i] 1-0 transitions. Colors represent the integrated intensity for the main velocity component from 11 to 17 km s−1 , black and white contours the integral over the component from 18 to 22 km s−1 , and orange and red contours the integral from 34 to 38 km s−1 . The zero position in the plots is at R.A.(J2000)=7:10:39.8, Dec(J2000)=-11:27:09. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Extended Atomic Carbon Around Molecular Clouds

by Keith CowingMarch 12, 2025March 12, 2025

Models predict that atomic carbon occurs at the surface and in the process of the formation of molecular clouds, making its fine structure transitions a diagnostic of cloud formation.

Regions surveyed to identify sources likely to present spectra with detectable ice features of H2O, CO, CO2, 13CO2, and other species in the 3 − 5 µm wavelength range where SPHEREx is sensitive. Upper panel: The regions are projected onto a background greyscale image representing the Rowles & Froebrich (2009) extinction map stretched from AV = 0 (white) to 2 mag (black). Solid red lines enclose the fields from which candidate SPHEREx targets have been drawn. Dotted blue lines indicate the boundaries of nearby molecular clouds as defined by Zucker et al. (2019). Red circles indicate the locations and sizes of ‘dark nebulae’ identified on the Palomar plates by Lynds (1962). Lower panel: same symbols as the upper panel, but the background greyscale image is the integrated 12CO(1-0) line intensity survey executed with the CfA 1.2 m telescope and its southern hemisphere counterpart (e.g., Dame et al. 2001; Heyer & Dame 2015). The inverted greyscale stretch ranges from −1 to 25 K km s−1, to indicate the extensive CO survey footprint. The white background indicates regions unobserved by the CfA CO survey except for the Magellanic Clouds (the SMC and LMC maps are described respectively in Rubio et al. (1991) and Cohen et al. (1988)). -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

The SPHEREx Target List of Ice Sources (SPLICES)

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025January 31, 2025

One of the primary objectives of the SPHEREx mission is to understand the origin of molecules such as H2O, CO2, and other volatile compounds at the early stages of planetary […]

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a section of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. ESA/Hubble, NASA, and C. Murray larger image

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Astrochemistry: Hubble Studies the Tarantula Nebula’s Outskirts

by Keith CowingJanuary 25, 2025

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a dusty yet sparkling scene from one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a […]

Two mid-infrared images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of Wolf-Rayet 140 show carbon-rich dust moving in space. At right, the two triangles from the main images are matched up to show how much difference 14 months makes: The dust is racing away from the central stars at almost 1% the speed of light. -- NASA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

Astrochemistry: Webb Watches Carbon-Rich Dust Shells Form, Expand in Star System

by Keith CowingJanuary 14, 2025January 14, 2025

Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon, which is essential for life, become widely distributed across the universe. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has examined […]

This image features NGC 346, one of the most dynamic star-forming regions in nearby galaxies, as seen by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. NCG 346 is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy close to our Milky Way. Larger image

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Planet-forming Discs Lived Longer In The Early Universe

by Keith CowingDecember 16, 2024December 16, 2024

In 2003, Hubble spotted a massive planet around a very old star, almost as old as the Universe. This implied that some planet formation happened when our Universe was very […]