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Dark matter makes up most of the universe -- and we still don't really know what it is.
It's the first time astronomers have achieved this feat.
It's the hungriest thing we've ever seen.
An incredibly fruitful mission sheds new secrets about the Milky Way.
For the first time, astronomers have managed to confirm the existence of a black hole population surrounding the core of our galaxy.
Looks like we can expect more gravitational waves in the near future.
Another discovery that cements black holes' fundamental role in the evolution of the universe.
It's the farthest, oldest, and perhaps most mysterious object we've ever discovered.
An ingenious technique could enable us to witness some of the strongest gravitational waves.
If confirmed, this could indicate a remarkable progress in modern physics.
Sometimes, even a black hole can choke on its meal.
This is one slow dance.
Your childhood fantasies weren't all that off.
Ready to sink your teeth into some black holes?
Why blow up when you can mass up?
This was thought to be impossible to undertake until not too long ago.
In the aftermath of a titanic galactic battle, a merged black hole caused some waves.
Greedy!
A new study offers an unorthodox explanation for how supermassive black hole formed in the early Universe.
Many more might be lurking in the galaxy.
And things are about to get even more exciting.
What we do know is that it blasts enormously powerful X-rays into the void.
Astronomers used to think black holes feed exclusively on a hot gas and dust, but it seems they sometimes like to go out for ice cream.
We may actually get to see a black hole!
At the heart of virtually every galaxy, including the Milky Way, is a supermassive blackhole that's anywhere from hundreds of thousands to billions of times more massive than the sun. How these cosmic bodies start off is still a subject of debate.
Nothing can escape a black hole, not even light, any scientists schooled in modern physics will tell you. Eminent British physicists, Stephen Hawking, suggests however that information is still retained at the boundary of black holes, known as the event horizon.
Astronomers have discovered a humongous supermassive black hole that’s 12 billion times as massive as the Sun. What’s peculiar about it isn’t necessarily its mass – some even bigger black holes have been found – but rather its age. Observations suggest that the black hole 12.8 billion light-years away, which means what scientists are reading […]
The team behind Interstellar's awesome special effects meant business when they set out to emulate space, celestial objects and black holes as scientifically accurate as possible. In a paper published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, the special effects crew describe at length the innovative computer code they used to generate stunning imagery, but also make new scientific discoveries. Whenever a SciFi movie spews new scientific advancement, well, you know it's a good one!
Two decades ago, astronomers started to find evidence that almost all galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their center. However, the discovery of a trio of black holes circling the center of a distant galaxy, reported by astronomers on Wednesday indicates that duos and trios of black holes are much more common than previously thought. […]
The Illustris project took 5 years of software development and 3 months running on 8000 processors – but it sure was worth it – the result is truly monumental! Now, researchers finally have an accurate model of the development of the universe, which even though is rough around some edges, still blends in well with today’s […]
About half of the Universe’s lifetime ago, it was feasting time for supermassive black holes – they were eating galaxies left and right, a new study might suggest. Taking advantage of a galaxy which acts like a natural zoom lens in space, astronomers have analyzed a black hole powering a quasar about 6 billion light years […]
Black holes have fascinated both researchers and laymen for decades. Without a doubt, they are the point of maximum interest in terms of astrophysical research – objects with an incredibly large mass – so large that even light itself can’t escape it… what secrets do these objects still hold? According to Carlo Rovelli at the […]
This same exact statement, ‘There are no black holes’, would be clearly criticized or not even taken into consideration. But when the author of the online paper, based at the University of Cambridge, is Stephen Hawking, the entire scientific community takes the time to analyze the premises as well as the links between them. This […]
In a black hole, Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity clashes with quantum physics; for decades, scientists have tried to find a way to bridge the cap between these monumental theories, but so far, they simply seem irreconcilable. But the conflict could be solved if our Universe were in fact a holographic projection. String theory, dimensions […]
Astronomers all over the world rejoiced recently after they were treated to a most privileged event. Using the RAPTOR (RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response) system in New Mexico and Hawaii, in conjunction with the most sophisticated observatories in the world, researchers witnessed what may be the most brightest event this century: an extreme flash of light […]
A black hole is simple and clear, at least according to the model proposed in 1963 by Roy Kerr; his model of a clear, smooth black hole is now the currently accepted paradigm. But a group of scientists led by Thomas Sotiriou, a physicist of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste claims […]
Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, followed by observations done with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes, astronomers have identified what’s considered to be the densest galaxy found so far in the nearby part of the Universe. Classed as an “ultra-compact dwarf galaxy” and dubbed as M60-UCD1, the density of stars in the galaxy is about 15,000 greater […]
The general belief surrounding black holes is that they’re massive, but vicious matter gobbling cosmic objects. While it’s true the reputation of black holes as destroyers precede them, we should not forget that they fill an important role in the Universe as creators. Scientists now know that black holes are inexorably linked with galaxies, lying […]
The overwhelming part of the universe is still a mystery to astronomers – and most of what we know is a result of deduction and analysis. So it should be no big surprise that when radio waves from 11 billion light years was received, they couldn’t pinpoint its origin. Their brightness and distance suggest that […]
Astronomers have discovered 26 likely black holes in the Andromea Galaxy – the biggest number of black holes ever found in a galaxy except for our own. Black holes are pretty difficult to detect, because they emit no light of their own – they are only observed by light given off by material which falls […]
Black holes are the single most interesting and puzzling objects in our Universe – that we know of. But as if they weren’t mysterious enough, researchers have found that if you apply a quantum theory of gravity to these bizarre objects, the all-crushing singularity at their core disappears, opening a whole new Universe of possibilities […]
In an unexpected discovery, astronomers have surprised a supermassive black hole that had been dormant for the past decades “waking up” and feasting upon an unsuspecting planet that had drifted too close to its event horizon. The mass of the planet hints towards a giant Jupiter or a small brown dwarf. Also, a similar event […]
ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope has found a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the whopping rate of once every 2.4 hours. Basically, the star orbits the black hole at 2,000,000 km/hr. The black hole here is 3-4 times heavier than the Sun, while the red dwarf has a mass just 20% […]
This is not really news, but it’s so awesome I just had to share it. Astronomers in England have discovered a “singing” black hole in a distant cluster of galaxies. But wait a minute, you’re gonna say; just hold on a second there. How can sound escape a black hole, and what does it propagate […]
Astronomers have made the first accurate measurement of a supermassive black hole’s spin, providing new insights that might help scientists probe the mysteries the surround them. Supermassive black holes have an incredibly huge gravitational pull that doesn’t let anything in its surroundings escape its hungry maw, be it dust, rock or even light. Some are […]
Astronomers at NASA‘s Chandra X-ray Observatory were delighted to come across one of the rarest events in the Universe, after they came across an atypical kind of supernova. To top it over, the supernova’s remnants may have given birth to the Milky Way’s youngest black hole estimated thus far. After a massive star, say ten times […]
Launched just last year, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is almost fully tweaked and ready to supply mankind with valuable scientific insight. Recently, NASA showcased a few finds made with the NuSTAR including this stunning imagery of a far away galaxy that showcases two unusually bright black holes. NuSTAR is the first orbiting telescope with […]
Astronomers using ESO‘s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered the most powerful quasar outflow discovered to date – five times more energetic than the previous record holder. Dubbed SDSS J1106+1939, the quasar outflow is at least equivalent to two million million times the power output of the Sun or 100 times higher than the total power […]
Most physicists believe that space is not smooth, but it is rather composed of incredibly small subunits, much like a painting made of dots. This micro-landscape is believed to host numerous black holes – black holes, that is, smaller than a trillionth of a trillionth of the diameter of a hydrogen atom, popping in and […]
As far as black holes go, Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is pretty boring. It emits about the same energy as the sun, despite being 4 million times more massive. Sagittarius A* Astronomers have observed that about once a day, the black hole awakes, emitting a brief […]
