Articles

Carlisle, C. “Double Bubble Toil.” Sky & Telescope (February 2021): 60. About the Fermi bubbles at the center of the Galaxy.

Carlisle, C. “Near the Pit: Stars at the Galactic Center.” Sky & Telescope (September 2018): 22. On the stars that orbit the black hole in the center and how they got there.

Croswell, K. “Dawn of the Milky Way.” in Sky & Telescope (August 2023): 34. On our evolving understanding of how the Milky Way formed and developed.

Croswell, K. “Mapping the Milky Way.” Sky & Telescope (November 2019): 16. How astronomers are pinning down the spiral structure of our Galaxy.

Croswell, K. “The Cepheus Spur.” Sky & Telescope (February 2023): 30. On a structural feature that connects our Local Arm with the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy.

Gallagher, J., Wyse, R., & Benjamin, R. “The New Milky Way.” Astronomy (September 2011): 26. Highlights all aspects of the Milky Way based on recent observations.

Goldstein, A. “Finding our Place in the Milky Way.” Astronomy (August 2015): 50. On the history of observations that pinpointed the Sun’s location in the Galaxy.

Haggard, D., & Bower, G. “In the Heart of the Milky Way.” Sky & Telescope (February 2016): 16. On observations of the Galaxy’s nucleus and the supermassive black hole and magnetar there.

Hall, S. “An Unusual Home.” Sky & Telescope (April 2022): 34. On new research on how our Galaxy interacted with satellite galaxies in the past and whether it is typical.

Hall, S. “Torrents of the Milky Way.” Sky & Telescope (March 2020): 34. How the Gaia satellite is showing us the history of star streams and past mergers within our Galaxy.

Kruesi, L. “How We Mapped the Milky Way.” Astronomy (October 2009): 28.

Schilling, G. “The Gaia Revolution.” Sky & Telescope (February 2023): 34. On the work of the European satellite mapping the Galaxy and the sky with unprecedented accuracy in three dimensions.

Shubinski, R. “The Shape of the Milky Way.” Astronomy (February 2022): 56. How our Galaxy’s shape was determined.

Szpir, M. “Passing the Bar Exam.” Astronomy (March 1999): 46. On evidence that our Galaxy is a barred spiral.

Waller, W. “Redesigning the Milky Way.” Sky & Telescope (September 2004): 50. On recent multi-wavelength surveys of the Galaxy.

Websites

2020 Nobel Prize in Physics: Popular Science Background: https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/popular-physicsprize2020-1.pdf. Read about the justification for giving Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel the Nobel Prize for establishing the existence and mass of the super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Franklin Institute “Case File” on Harlow Shapley and his Work: https://www.fi.edu/en/news/case-files-harlow-shapley (see also: https://owlcation.com/stem/Harlow-Shapley-An-American-Astronomer-Who-Measured-the-Galaxy)

How We Learned the Shape of the Milky Way: https://www.astronomy.com/science/how-we-learned-the-shape-of-the-milky-way/. An article from Astronomy magazine.

Interview with Andrea Ghez for the PBS Nova Program, Monster of the Milky Way: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blackhole/explorer.html

Multiwavelength Milky Way: https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/mwmw/mmw_edu.html. This NASA site shows the plane of our Galaxy in a variety of wavelength bands, and includes background material and other resources.

UCLA Galactic Center Group: https://www.galacticcenter.astro.ucla.edu/. Learn more about the work of Andrea Ghez and colleagues on the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Videos

Andrea Ghez: Nobel Prize Lecture 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGw6_CdvGKM (32:22). Also see her 2009 TED Talk at: https://www.ted.com/talks/andrea_ghez_the_hunt_for_a_supermassive_black_hole (16:10).

Big Questions: Dark Matter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPNrcKeqbBM. Dr. Don Lincoln explains how astronomers discovered dark matter and how we search for it (6:44).

Black Hole’s Dinner is Fast Approaching: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1151a/. European Southern Observatory video about the discovery of a cloud of gas approaching the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy (5:17).

Catching a Glimpse of the Milky Way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAtnBzDZvsk. Spitzer Space Telescope panorama of the Milky Way Galaxy in the infrared (2:50).

Guide to Our Galaxy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5AdrupH788. A fly-through of our Galaxy, starting with the stars orbiting the central black hole and moving outward. Ends with comparing the survey volumes of the Hipparcos and Gaia space telescopes (2:45).

Journey to the Galactic Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36xZsgZ0oSo. A brief silent trip into the cluster of stars near the galactic center showing their motions around the center (3:00).

What and Where are the Arms of the Milky Way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSYWTsNCoyI. Dr. Alyssa Goodman at Harvard explains and illustrates where the main spiral arms of our Galaxy can be found (3:44).