Astronomers have imaged a feeding black hole-powered quasar at the very edge of the universe, far enough away to appear less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang. The quasar, named SDSS J114816.64+525150.3, is powered by a supermassive black hole with more than 3 billion times the mass of the sun, located in the… Read More »
Given that primordial black holes are suspects of dark matter, their excuse may be falling apart. Small black holes formed seconds after the birth of the universe may survive longer than expected, reigniting suspicion that primordial black holes could explain dark matter, the universe’s most mysterious substance. Dark matter currently represents one of the most… Read More »
Some 90s trends have made a very welcome comeback; Others no one needs to see again. But unlike the frosted tips, baggy Batik shirts, landline phones and pogs that have (hopefully?) been consigned to the trash can, binary stars are resurfacing as worth studying. And not too soon. In short, binary stars are vital in… Read More »
Thanks to their enormous gravitational forces, the regions around black holes are violent and turbulent environments driven by physics that cannot be found anywhere else in the universe. In fact, black holes are so effective that when they rotate, they drag the fabric of space with them. In other words, nothing remains stationary near a… Read More »
The Space Telescope Science Institute has announced which astronomy proposals have been selected to be given time with the James Webb Space Telescope over the next two years. The organization on Thursday, February 29, outlined the 253 General Observer (GO) program that will use humanity’s most powerful and sensitive space telescope for a collective 5,500… Read More »
Two supermassive black holes in colliding “fossil galaxies” are so massive that they refuse to collide and merge. This discovery may explain why supermassive black hole mergers have been theoretically predicted but never observed. The supermassive black hole system is located in the elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379. The common mass of two black holes is… Read More »
A newly developed solution to the equations at its center Albert Einstein‘s most revolutionary theory suggests that hypothetical stars called “nestars” could be made from gravitational stars stacked on top of each other, or “gravastars” like Russian tea dolls, also known as matryoshka dolls. One of the most fascinating things about general relativity, Einstein’s 1915… Read More »
Jean-Pierre Luminet Black holes are undoubtedly among the most mysterious types of objects in the universe. Scientists realized their existence in the early 20th century after Albert Einstein’s revolutionary suggestions about gravity. It took until 1964 for scientists to even suggest they had observed one, and it was only in 2019 that astronomers were able… Read More »
Astronomers have observed a supermassive black hole in Earth’s cosmic backyard, shooting jets of matter at speeds close to the speed of light. These outbursts tell the story of the struggle for supremacy between magnetism and gravity. This discovery could help scientists better understand how black holes feed on matter and eject powerful jets that… Read More »
Astronomers have detected a supermassive black hole throwing a galactic-scale tantrum as it feeds, figuratively “turning the table” and cutting off the gas supply its host galaxy needs to birth stars. The table’s flipping behavior clearly comes in the form of an ultrafast wind emanating from the gently pulsating supermassive black hole located in an… Read More »