Swift Satellite

Gamma-ray bursts are already the most energetic events we know of in the universe. Now, astronomers have detected the most powerful one ever. The competition isn’t even close, either – it's almost a thousand times more powerful than your average GRB.

Astronomers have long proposed that there must be intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in space. Now, scientists from the University of New Hampshire have captured the best evidence so far of the existence of these mysterious middleweights, as one emerges from the dark to snack on a star.

An international team of astronomers from Europe, Israel and the United States has succeeded in shedding light on the origin of Type la supernovae – powerful nuclear explosions in deep space that allow us to chart the vast distances between galaxies.

Astronomers have used NASA's Swift satellite to produce two stunning ultraviolet images of our nearest neighboring galaxies.