A newly published study bridges the gap between theory and black hole observation, confirming how stellar-mass black holes produce their highest-energy light by demonstrating that both hard and soft X-rays inevitably arise from gas spiraling toward a black hole. A new study by astronomers at NASA, Johns Hopkins University and Rochester Institute of Technology confirms [...]

Using data from 152 observations of Chandra spanning over 13 years, researchers discovered twenty-six new stellar-mass black holes candidates in Andromeda, also known as M31. Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered an unprecedented bonanza of black holes in the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way. Using [...]

NuSTAR data reveals that the once active supermassive black hole at the center of the Sculptor galaxy, also known as NGC 253, is now dormant, an unusual discovery since the giant black hole is asleep in the midst of tremendous star-forming activity all around it. Nearly a decade ago, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory caught signs [...]

A newly published study suggest that black holes were abundant among the first stars in the universe, finding that black holes are responsible for at least 20 percent of the cosmic infrared background, which indicates intense activity from black holes feeding on gas during the epoch of the first stars. By comparing infrared and X-ray [...]

In a newly published study, physicists take singularity out of black holes, suggesting that black holes could serve as portals. LSU physicist and Center for Computation and Technology researcher Jorge Pullin and his colleague Rodolfo Gambini of the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay, have published a study applying Loop Quantum Gravity to an [...]

Using ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, scientists have detected and analyzed a variety of simple molecules at the center of Milky Way, allowing them to probe some of the fundamental properties of the interstellar gas surrounding the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. ESA’s Herschel space observatory has made detailed observations of [...]

According to a newly published study from Caltech astrophysicist Anthony Piro, a new kind of cosmic flash may reveal the birth of a black hole. When a massive star exhausts its fuel, it collapses under its own gravity and produces a black hole, an object so dense that not even light can escape its gravitational [...]

Using data from the Very Large Array, astronomers have for the first time identified discrete sources that account for nearly all the radio waves coming from distant galaxies. Staring at a small patch of sky for more than 50 hours with the ultra-sensitive Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers have for the first [...]

Observations of a newly discovered pulsar and its white dwarf companion, orbiting each other once every two and a half hours, show that the binary’s orbital decay is consistent with Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. A strange stellar pair nearly 7,000 light-years from Earth has provided physicists with a unique cosmic laboratory for studying the [...]

By using certain types of active black holes that lie at the center of many galaxies, researchers have developed a method with the potential to measure distances of billions of light years with a high degree of accuracy. Radiation emitted in the vicinity of black holes could be used to measure distances of billions of [...]

Using ESA’s Integral space observatory, astronomers discovered and watched a black hole in galaxy NGC 4845 feed on a low-mass object that strayed too close. Loading… Astronomers have watched as a black hole woke up from a decades-long slumber to feed on a low-mass object – either a brown dwarf or a giant planet – [...]

Using data from ground observations and space telescopes, researchers have identified a red dwarf and black hole that orbit each other once every 2.4 hours, beating the previous record. Loading… ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope has helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the dizzying rate of once every [...]