Black Hole

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…

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…