A binary black hole system in an active galaxy about 4 billion light-years away was seen to brighten dramatically when one of the black holes briefly formed the accretion disk of the other into a double star. quasar. A quasar is the extremely active core of a distant galaxy. This activity is a product of… Read More »
Eventually all galaxies, including our Milky Way, will come to an end. So how do galaxies die? If you’re in the mood to destroy an entire galaxy, you have a few options depending on the level of destruction you want. Relating to: Monstrous black holes may have killed host galaxies in the early universe Option… Read More »
As astronomers chronicle the growth of galaxies by combining X-ray observations with detailed supercomputer models, the history of the dark hearts of galaxies has been told almost completely for the first time. supermassive black holes More than 12 billion years of cosmic history. By doing this, scientists showed that there is a black hole at… Read More »
Astronomers have detected flares and echoes from Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. These “cosmic fireworks” and X-ray echoes could help scientists better understand the dark and silent cosmic titan around which our galaxy revolves. A team of Michigan State University researchers made the groundbreaking discovery… Read More »
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have mapped for the first time the plasma “burps” of a quasar powered by a feeding supermassive black hole living relatively close to Earth. While supermassive black holes with masses millions or billions of times that of the Sun are thought to be at the heart of all galaxies,… Read More »
The “shaking” remains of a star that suffered a grisly death at the maw of a supermassive black hole have helped reveal the spin rate of the cosmic predator. Supermassive black holes are believed to be born through successive mergers of smaller black holes; Each of these brings with it angular momentum that accelerates the… Read More »
Black hole week is in full swing at this point, and to celebrate, NASA has released stunning observations of the heart of a distant spiral galaxy, as well as the monster supermassive black hole that lives within that heart. The observations were carried out by the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), led by the… Read More »
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you were unlucky enough to fall into a black hole, NASA has an answer. To celebrate the start of black hole week on Monday, May 6, a visualization created on a NASA supercomputer takes the viewer on a one-way dive beyond a black hole’s event horizon. This… Read More »
Artist’s rendering of a black hole formed when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycles (ESA / Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey / Nick Risinger / N Bartmann / Durham University) The largest known black hole in the Milky Way, other than the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy,… Read More »
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 »