Astronomers from the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) have produced a completely new catalogue of ~15,000 groups of galaxies that gives a new insight into dark matter, the material of unknown composition that makes up 20% of the mass of the Universe.

A team at Bristol University have found irrevocable evidence that explains how an unusual type of galaxy, so-called compact ellipticals (cEs), are formed and have discovered two examples in which they see the process of formation in action.

In celebration of the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s deployment into space, astronomers pointed Hubble at an especially photogenic group of interacting galaxies called Arp 273.

A study of spiral patterns found in galaxies like our Milky Way could overturn the theory of how the spiral arm features form and evolve. The results are being presented by postgraduate student, Robert Grand, at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales this week.