Black Hole

The massive globular star cluster Omega Centauri has puzzled astronomers for decades. It should be filled with black holes left behind by exploding stars, yet evidence for them is scarce. Now, astronomers using archival data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and supportive observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have…

Scientists have proposed a new way to describe black holes that could overcome a major limitation in one of Stephen Hawking's most influential ideas. The research introduces an updated approach to black hole thermodynamics that works even when black holes are changing over time, potentially offering new insights into how…

For decades, the story of black holes seemed simple. Massive stars die, explode in supernovae, and then collapse into black holes. However, new evidence suggests that many black holes may not form this way at all. Instead, some of them are the offspring of other black holes. They are the…

Artist’s rendition of an Active Galactic Nucleus with the accretion disk highlighted. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Conceptual Image Lab Dust patterns around quasars may help reveal supermassive black holes kicked from galactic centers. When galaxies collide, the chaos does not stop with stars and gas. At the center…

The 'youth-obsessed' BBC is set to axe its arts and culture channel BBC4 and invest in YouTube and TikTok – a move described by furious insiders as a betrayal of the traditional viewers who still pay the licence fee. The BBC is scrambling to make savings after discovering a £500million…

JWST's view of the dusty structures and hidden activity inside the Centaurus A galaxy. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI), J. Depasquale (STScI), M. Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI))) Quick facts What it is: Centaurus A galaxy (NGC 5128) Where it is: 11 million…

Astronomers have found the most extreme example yet of a black hole outweighing its own galaxy, and it may be hiding clues to how the supermassive black holes seen today formed in the early universe. In a new study, astronomers directly measured the mass of a black hole sitting in…

Gigantic, ancient black hole threatens to upend cosmic history Debate still swirls around the nature of “little red dots,” black holes glimpsed in the early universe by the James Webb Space Telescope. A controversial new weigh-in may settle the matter By Joseph Howlett edited by Lee Billings An artist’s conception…

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In 1993, Canadian physicist Matthew Choptuik demonstrated black holes may emerge spontaneously from critical collapse, during which spacetime curvatures organize themselves into a defined, repeating crystal-like pattern. But researchers weren’t quite able to describe this nicely in formulaic language—until now. A team of theoretical physicists say it’s found the long-sought…