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    Dark matter, not a black hole, could power Milky Way’s heart

    February 7, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    'Dark matter, not a black hole, could power Milky Way's heart'
    Artistic representation of the Milky Way, where the innermost stars move at near relativistic speeds (defined as velocities that constitute a significant fraction of the speed of light, typically considered to be 10% or more) around a dense core of dark matter, with no black hole at the centre. At greater distances, the halo part of the same invisible dark matter distribution continues to shape the motions of stars in the outskirts of our galaxy, tracing the characteristic rotation curve. Credit: Valentina Crespi et al. License type Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

    Our Milky Way galaxy may not have a supermassive black hole at its center but rather an enormous clump of mysterious dark matter exerting the same gravitational influence, astronomers say...

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    Scientists just mapped the hidden structure holding the universe together

    February 5, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The Universe’s Hidden Structure Revealed
    This map shows the Dark Matter distribution in the COSMOS field observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (left) and by the James Webb Space Telescope (right). Dark Matter distribution in the COSMOS field. The overlaid contours mark regions of equal dark-matter density, highlighting where this invisible matter – shown here in a blue color ­– is most strongly concentrated. Credit: Dr. Gavin Leroy/Professor Richard Massey/COSMOS-Webb collaboration

    Scientists have produced the most detailed map ever created of dark matter that runs throughout the Universe, revealing how it has influenced the formation of stars, galaxies, and planets.

    The research, which includes astronomers from Durham University in the UK, provides new insight into how this unseen substance helped draw ordinary matt...

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    Milky Way is embedded in a ‘large-scale sheet’ of dark matter, which explains motions of nearby galaxies

    January 30, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The Milky Way is embedded in a 'large-scale sheet' and this explains the motions of nearby galaxies
    Various projections of the posterior mean density of the constrained simulation ensemble, normalized by the cosmic mean density. Credit: Nature Astronomy (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02770-w. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02770-w

    Computer simulations carried out by astronomers from the University of Groningen in collaboration with researchers from Germany, France and Sweden show that most of the (dark) matter beyond the Local Group of galaxies (which includes the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy) must be organized in an extended plane. Above and below this plane are large voids. The observed motions of nearby galaxies and the joint masses of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy can only be properly explained with this “flat” mass distribution...

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    After nearly 100 years, scientists may have detected dark matter

    November 27, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    After nearly 100 years, scientists may have detected dark matter
    Gamma-ray intensity map excluding components other than the halo, spanning approximately 100 degrees in the direction of the Galactic center. The horizontal gray bar in the central region corresponds to the Galactic plane area, which was excluded from the analysis to avoid strong astrophysical radiation. Credit: Tomonori Totani, The University of Tokyo

    In the early 1930s, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed galaxies in space moving faster than their mass should allow, prompting him to infer the presence of some invisible scaffolding—dark matter—holding the galaxies together. Nearly 100 years later, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have provided direct evidence of dark mattner, allowing the invisible matter to be “seen” for the very first time.

    The elusive nature of ...

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