Black Hole

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…

In a short span of time, astronomers have taken us closer to black holes than ever with unprecedented images of the cosmic giants. Now, for the first time, scientists have seen the phenomena that takes place behind them. As part of the breakthrough, researchers witnessed and captured the light from…

Seen nearly edgewise, the turbulent disk of gas churning around a black hole takes on a crazy double-humped appearance. The black hole’s extreme gravity alters the paths of light coming from different parts of the disk, producing the warped image. The black hole’s extreme gravitational field redirects and distorts light…

Artist impression of disk of material rotating around a supermassive black hole. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF What happens inside a black hole stays inside a black hole, but what happens inside a black hole’s “sphere of influence” – the innermost region of a galaxy where a black hole’s gravity is the dominant…