Black Hole

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,…

Media Advisory 20-002 April 8, 2020 Media are invited to join an April 10 Zoom media briefing with Sheperd S. Doeleman, founding director of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), and astrophysicist Michael Johnson to discuss the one-year anniversary of EHT releasing its revolutionary image of a black hole. Doeleman and…

Image copyright Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration Image caption The right-hand image was captured with a less powerful telescope. It shows the jet streaming away to the lower-right. In the new EHT image on the left, scientists can now see detail where the jet connects to the accretion disc. The supermassive…

A star’s tattered remains (orange and yellow disk) are consumed by a mysterious object called an intermediate-mass black hole in this artist’s impression. Credit: NASA/ESA/D.Player, STScI Astronomy and astrophysics 07 April 2020 The discovery could help to unravel the evolution of the Universe’s most extreme environments. Astronomers say they have…

A star’s tattered remains (orange and yellow disk) are consumed by a mysterious object called an intermediate-mass black hole in this artist’s impression. Credit: NASA/ESA/D.Player, STScI Astronomy and astrophysics 07 April 2020 The discovery could help to unravel the evolution of the Universe’s most extreme environments. Astronomers say they have…

Whilst astronomers are fairly certain that supermassive black holes, billions of times more massive than our  Sun, dwell at the center of almost every galaxy in the Universe, they are still unsure how these cosmic monsters reach such tremendous sizes. The problem seems to be one of time, the Universe…

Scientists have detected supermassive black holes that are millions or billions as massive as the Sun, as well as black holes that are only five to 30 times as massive as the Sun. But there’s another class of object that has proved trickier to spot—intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), which have…

Image copyright ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser Image caption Artwork: The presumed black hole revealed itself by tearing apart a star that ventured too close A team of astronomers has found what it says is the best evidence yet for an elusive class of black hole.They say the presumed "intermediate-mass" black hole…