Black Hole

The pattern sketched by a star orbiting the Milky Way’s black hole validates the general theory of relativity. Credit: L. Calçada/ESO Astronomy and astrophysics 21 April 2020 The supermassive black hole at the core of the Milky Way adds to support for general relativity. After following a star’s motion around…

A visualization of a collision between two differently sized black holes.Credit: N. Fischer, H. Pfeiffer, A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration Gravitational-wave astronomers have for the first time detected a collision between two black holes of substantially different masses — opening up a…

A visualization of a collision between two differently sized black holes.Credit: N. Fischer, H. Pfeiffer, A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration Gravitational-wave astronomers have for the first time detected a collision between two black holes of substantially different masses — opening up a…

Quasar jets imaged by the Earth Horizon Telescope (EHT) show galactic movements in unprecedented detail. Movements of vast quantities of gas, racing away from Quasar 3C 279 at speeds near the speed of light, reveal signs of a violent past. In 2019, the The Earth Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network…

ISS crew members Andrew Morgan after landing in Kazakhstan. Reuters Moscow: A US-Russian space crew landed safely on Friday in the steppes of Kazakhstan, greeted with extra precautions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Following a stint on the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan and Russian Oleg…

Star orbiting in a rosette shape around a black hole. Image Credit: ESO/L. Calçada Astronomers have observed a star tracing a rosette shape in its orbit around a supermassive black hole for the first time, an effect that provides further proof of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. The international team…

The Very Large Telescope watched a star for 27 years, measuring its movements around Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way ESO/L. Calçada The mammoth black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (or, in short, Sgr A*), is orbited by a veritable buffet of…

eso2006 — Science Release 16 April 2020 Observations made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed for the first time that a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way moves just as predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Its orbit is shaped…

A star that is pirouetting around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, our galaxy, has validated a key part of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The star, called S2, is like “a precision probe of the gravitational field around the closest massive black hole,"…

By Leah Crane Artist’s impression of the odd orbit of the star S2Credit: ESO/L. CalçadaThe movement of a star close to our galaxy’s supermassive black hole has proved Albert Einstein right about gravity once again. After 27 years of observation, we have finally nailed down the orbit of this star,…