Black Hole

The intermediate-mass black hole in question was caught in the act of swallowing a star, called a tidal disruption event. Dubbed 3XMM J215022.4-055108, the event occured in a star cluster associated with a lenticular galaxy at distance of almost 800 million light-years away. An artist’s impression of a black hole…

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found thousands of dense gas clumps but, surprisingly, no star formation, in a circumnuclear disk around Sagittarius A*, the 4-million-solar-mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Clumps of molecular gas overlaid on Sagittarius A* circumnuclear disk as…

Astronomers have used gravitational lensing to obtain an unprecedented look at a black hole system in the early Universe. An artist’s illustration shows how the X-ray light from one of the objects on the left (purple) has been warped by the gravity of an intervening galaxy to produce two sources…

Previously, it was believed that the black holes are inert, the final stages of a dying star. Then, in 1974, Professor Stephen Hawking discovered that black holes emit thermal radiation. Now, scientists at the University of Sussex have discovered that black holes are even more complex thermodynamic systems, with a…

Chris Unger/Getty Images The Las Vegas Raiders teetered on the edge of the abyss—or a black hole if you will—only to find their way to a miraculous 33-27 overtime victory Monday against the Baltimore Ravens. Fans booed an uninspired first-half effort during the first fully attended football game at Allegiant…

In 1974, Stephen Hawking made the seminal discovery that black holes emit thermal radiation. Previous to that, black holes were believed to be inert. In new research, a duo of researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sussex shows that black holes are in fact…

Space 9 September 2021 By Leah Crane An artist’s impression of a black hole Shutterstock / Vadim Sadovski Black holes may have their own exotic version of pressure that is different from the sort found everywhere else in the universe. Calculations of how quantum mechanics affects gravity at the edge…

Astronomers have observed the signs of a star swallowing a compact object that they believe is a black hole, and that object then devouring the star's core from the inside. The process resulted in an explosion that left the star obliterated and the black hole standing alone. The gruesome cosmic…

Space 2 September 2021 By Leah Crane Supernovae are violent explosions MEHAU KULYK/SPL/Alamy Astronomers have found a new type of supernova in a galaxy about 500 million light years away from Earth. This enormous explosion, called a merger-triggered core collapse supernova, was expected to occur in some systems where two…

Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA. Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF Astronomers have found dramatic evidence that a black hole or neutron star spiraled its way into the core…