A supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way just woke up and is flashing 75 times brighter than ever observed, after being quiet for more than 20 years, baffling astronomers. Sagittarius A*, a supermassive blackhole that weighs about 4 million solar masses, is normally low key with minimal fluctuation in brightness. Recently, however, it bloomed 75 times brighter than ever before for... 

US food major Mars is recalling products in 55 countries after plastic found in one of its candy bars in Germany. Reports said on Tuesday that US chocolate company Mars Inc. is recalling millions of candy bars and other items in 55 countries after plastic was found in one of its products. The discovery has been reportedly made in Germany where a customer is believed to have found a piece of red plastic... 

The M60-UCD1, discovered by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 2013, is one of the smallest known galaxies. But now the space agency has discovered that the dwarf galaxy is harboring a “monster” black hole. The diameter of M60-UCD1 is about 300 light years – just 1/500th of our galaxy’s width. However, it is packed with 140 million stars, which also makes it one of the densest galaxies. For... 

Artists impression of gas cloud G2 falling onto Sag A* As gas cloud G2 speeds towards Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s center, astronomers are getting ready to have some of their questions answered. At least the devouring, expected in March-April, promises to be a spectacular view. As Sagittarius A* is located almost 26,000 light years away from the Earth, the collision itself... 

Europe has launched a billion dollar state of the art space telescope, that should bring back home the most detailed 3D map of our galaxy. The five-year-long space voyage of the telescope named Gaia has started from Kourou in French Guiana, where it has taken off on top of a Russian-built Soyuz-Fregat rocket. The European Space Agency has dubbed the Gaia telescope “the billion star surveyor” which... 

A photo of the Milky Way galaxy Scientists at the University of Zurich in Switzerland say they have created the world’s first realistic simulation of the formation of the Milky Way. Astrophysicists from the University of Zurich working with astronomers at the University of California maintain that their recent video simulation of the Milky Way shows the creation of our galaxy less than a million... 

Twinkle, twinkle little star: The diamond planet - the shrunken core of a once-huge star - is a chunk of crystallised carbon measuring 40,000 miles across, five times the diameter of Earth. It is certainly what you could call a gem of a discovery. Astronomers believe they have found an entire planet made of diamonds. Scientists at the University of Manchester think they have unearthed a once-massive... 

A group of American astrophysicists led by Alberto Cezanne came to the conclusion that some “mysterious” phenomena that occur in our galaxy are associated with the cosmic catastrophe that occurred ten million years ago. Then, the scientists say, the Milky Way collided with a dwarf galaxy the center of which was a massive black hole. For example, it is difficult to explain too high rate... 

Astronomers Unveil Most Complete 3D Map of Local Universe. Click on the image to enlarge it. The image to the right is the most complete map of our local universe to date. It took more that ten years to create, has 43,000 galaxies (the universe contains billions if not even trillions of galaxies) and extends out 380 million light years from the earth. The 3D coordinates of each galaxy was recorded... 

Starry night: New research estimates that there are some 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. Scientists have estimated the first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy and the numbers are astronomical – at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. And some 500 million of those planets are in what is known as the Goldilocks zone, where the climate is thought to be not-too-hot and not-too-cold,... 

This artist's impression shows HIP 13044 b, an exoplanet orbiting a star that entered our galaxy, the Milky Way, from another galaxy. European astronomers say they have discovered the first planet that comes from a galaxy outside the Milky Way, according to research released in the United States. A hot, gaseous and fast-spinning planet has been found orbiting a dying star on the edge of the Milky...