Black Hole

The origin of high-energy cosmic neutrinos observed by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, whose detector is buried deep in the Antarctic ice, is an enigma that has perplexed physicists and astronomers. A new model could help explain the unexpectedly large flux of some of these neutrinos inferred by recent neutrino and…

More than four billion years ago, a pair of black holes engaged in a dramatic dance. With gas and dust whirling around them, the voids spiraled closer and closer together, orbiting perilously near to a supermassive black hole. Then the two smaller black holes merged in a collision so powerful…

Mysteries about the origin of high-energy cosmic neutrinos have deepened by the recent IceCube measurement of a large diffuse flux in the 10–100 TeV range.  Scientists at Penn State have devised a new model that could help explain the unexpectedly large flux of some of these neutrinos inferred by recent…

Astronomers Find Light Created by Black Hole Merger Astronomers working in California say they may have discovered evidence of light emitted from the merger of two black holes. If their findings are confirmed by future studies, then this marks the first-ever observation of light ejected by the smashing together of…

An international team of astronomers has discovered the second most distant quasar ever found. Named Pōniuā`ena and designated J100758.264+211529.207 (J1007+2115), the object is around 13.1 billion light-years away, and contains a huge black hole with the mass equivalent to about 1.5 billion Suns, about twice as massive as that in…

This artist’s concept shows a supermassive black hole surrounded by a disk of gas. Embedded in this disk are two smaller black holes that may have merged together to form a new black hole.Image credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC) In a first, astronomers may have seen light from the merger of…

Home News Science & Astronomy An artist's depiction of two black holes merging within the disk of a supermassive black hole, later releasing a burst of light. (Image: © Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)) Black holes aren't supposed to make flashes of light. It's right there in the name: black holes.Even when…

The gravitational-wave signal GW190814, detected on August 14, 2019 by NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo detector in Europe, was generated by a compact object — a neutron star or a black hole — 2.6 times the mass of our Sun merging with a black hole of…

(CNN)A mysterious astronomical object merged with a black hole 780 million light-years away and created gravitational waves that could be detected on Earth. The object exists inside what scientists call the "mass gap," a range between the heaviest known neutron star and the lightest known black hole. And it could…

An advanced civilization, perhaps an alien one, could hypothetically extract energy from a black ... hole. Getty We have something in common with alien civilizations... we both need energy. Any advanced alien civilization would, like us, need to obtain energy from their environment. For a beginning civilization, this includes burning…