Black Hole

Using data collected by the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), astronomers have found evidence that a compact object — a black hole or neutron star — spiraled its way into the core of a companion star in the VT 1210+4956 system and caused it to explode as a supernova.…

By combining gravitational lensing with the capabilities of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have detected two X-ray-emitting objects — two growing supermassive black holes or one such black hole and a jet — in an active galaxy called MG B2016+112. The X-rays detected by Chandra were emitted by MG B2016+112 when…

Our human world is soaked in light. For starters there are the 100,000 trillion photons arriving every second at every square centimeter of Earth’s dayside surface, after racing here from the outer envelope of a natural giant thermonuclear reactor we call the sun. There are also the photons that zip…

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…

Home News There's no consensus yet on how supermassive black holes form, but a mesmerizing new simulation is taking a crack at that question like never before.  Scientists are hoping that new simulations, like the one recently created by researchers at Northwestern University, can reveal the origins of these gargantuan…

Home News Science & Astronomy An artist's depiction of matter swirling around a black hole. (Image credit: NASA/Dana Berry/SkyWorks Digital) Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of "Ask a Spaceman" and "Space Radio," and author of "How to Die in Space." Sutter…

Home News Science & Astronomy There's no consensus yet on how supermassive black holes form, but a mesmerizing new simulation is taking a crack at that question like never before.  Scientists are hoping that new simulations, like the one recently created by researchers at Northwestern University, can reveal the origins…

Home News Science & Astronomy Of all the far-out concepts in astronomy, black holes may be the weirdest. A region of space where matter is so tightly packed that nothing, not even light itself, can escape, these dark behemoths present a pretty terrifying prospect, too. With all the normal rules…

Home News Science & Astronomy The feeding process at the center of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy NGC 1566. (Image credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)) How do you feed an all-consuming, cosmic glutton that is a black hole? With long, wispy filaments of dust, according to researchers who…

Space 2 August 2021 By Leah Crane Black holes follow the no-hair theorem Bransgrove A., et al./American Physical Society Black holes with “hair” will quickly go bald. A key theoretical prediction about black holes called the no-hair theorem states that an isolated black hole can be described by just three…