Black Hole

Astronomers from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration have imaged a jet in the heart of the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A and identified the location of the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole with respect to its resolved jet core. Distance scales uncovered in the Centaurus A jet from the…

Several years of observations and theoretical modeling have helped astrophysicists better understand how gas collapses to form new stars in galaxies. But, not all galaxies are actively star-forming. Such galaxies have an abundant population of “quiescent” objects, including stars, at significantly lower rates. What stops star formation in galaxies? For…

Home News Could we ever solve the black hole information paradox? (Image credit: NASA) Are black holes as simple as they appear, or is there more to their story?  Theories that attempt to resolve the so-called black hole information paradox predict that black holes are much more complicated than general…

There is a black hole at the center of every galaxy that is millions to billions of times more massive than the Sun. The mass of the black hole is generally relative to the mass of the galaxy’s central region in the nearby universe. Isn’t it strange? The reason is…

Every galaxy holds a black hole whose gravitational field is extremely intense. However, that gravitational field affects only a small region around the center of the Universe. According to theories, the growing black holes generate enough energy to heat up and drive out the gas within galaxies to great distances.…

As the name suggests, supermassive black holes have masses ranging from one million to 10 billion solar masses. Sometimes, SMBHs are quiet and invisible, which makes it quite challenging to observe directly. But when a material is falling into their massive maws, they blaze with radiation, putting out more light…

If such an object a mere 1,000 times bigger than an atom passed through your body, the result would not be pretty Credit: George Peters Getty Images In the infant universe, a substantial enhancement in the radiation density on the scale of the cosmic horizon could have made some small…

A composite image of the supernova 1E0102.2-7219 contains X-rays from Chandra (blue and purple), visible light data from VLT’s MUSE instrument (bright red), and additional data from Hubble (dark red and green). A neutron star, the ultra dense core of a massive star that collapses and undergoes a supernova explosion,…

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Doing astronomy with ripples in spacetimeGeneral relativity predicts that moving massive objects generate gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime that propagate at the speed of light. Direct detection of gravitational waves was first announced in February of 2016. Vitale reviews the scientific results of gravitational wave astronomy over the subsequent 5…