When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn commission. Drawing of a supermassive black hole binary. | Source: NASA Binary pairings of small black holes could be used by astronomers in a cosmic game of hide-and-seek to hunt for much larger, but more elusive, supermassive black hole binaries.… Read More »
When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn commission. A three-colour image of the galaxy ESO 428-G14 captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. | Credit: NASA/ESA/JWST Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to image the dust and gas structure around a distant supermassive black… Read More »
When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn commission. A drawing shows what the universe might look like when it’s less than 1 billion years old. | Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Schaller (for STScI) When NASA’s next great extraterrestrial observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, opens… Read More »
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have observed the dramatic “dance” between a supermassive black hole and two satellite galaxies. The observations could help scientists better understand how galaxies and supermassive black holes grew in the early universe. This particular supermassive black hole feeds off of its surrounding matter, powering a bright quasar… Read More »
Quasars, the brightest objects in the universe, can serve as cosmic signposts that lead astronomers to pairs of supermassive black holes. While scientists are aware that supermassive black holes with masses of millions or even billions of times the sun lurk at the center of all large galaxies, detecting binary pairings of these cosmic titans… Read More »
Forget “little green men”; it was the “little red dots” in the infant universe that caught the eye of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Scientists say the strange red objects hide stars that models suggest are “too old” to have existed in early cosmic times, as well as black holes thousands of times more… Read More »
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have detected a supermassive black hole that appears incredibly massive at “cosmic dawn.” The confusion stems from the fact that this huge void did not appear to be fed by much of the material in the environment at the time; but to reach its enormous size, it… Read More »
A bright quasar powered by a supermassive black hole is blasting radiation that pushes surrounding gas clouds to produce winds reaching speeds of about 36 million miles per hour (58 million kilometers per hour). Oh, and the quasar is almost as old as the universe itself. The discovery, made by a team of scientists led… Read More »
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, Sign up for free here. About 67 million years ago, two dinosaurs faced off in a showdown in what is now Montana before being buried together in a single grave. It is not clear which… Read More »
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Astronomers are witnessing a sight never before seen in the universe: the awakening of a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy. In late 2019, a team of astronomers noticed an otherwise… Read More »