Deepening Astronomical Mystery: On the Hunt for a Missing Giant Black Hole
Astronomers are searching for signs of a supermassive black hole in the galaxy cluster Abell 2261. Nearly all large galaxies contain central black holes, and…
Black Hole
Supermassive Black Hole’s Dust Ring May Be Casting Shadows From Heart of a Galaxy
Some of the most stunning views of our sky occur at sunset, when sunlight pierces the clouds, creating a mixture of bright and dark rays…
All Dark Matter in the Universe Could Be Primordial Black Holes – Formed From the Collapse of Baby Universes Soon After the Big Bang
The Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) is home to many interdisciplinary projects which benefit from the synergy of…
Black Holes Discharge the Energy in Their Powerful Plasma Jets Much Farther Away Than Thought
New study determines that black holes discharge the energy in their plasma jets much farther away from the black hole’s center than previously thought, resolving…
Massive Overcontact Binary Stars May Explain Massive Black Hole Merger Puzzle
In 2015, the first direct observation of gravitational waves was made by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO) (Abbott et al. 2016). The detected…
Galaxy Survives Black Hole’s Feast – “Goes Against All the Current Scientific Predictions”
The hungriest of black holes are thought to gobble up so much surrounding material they put an end to the life of their host galaxy….
Scientists Catch Supermassive Black Holes Launching Newborn Radio Jets
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory researchers led a team of scientists who discovered some of the youngest known radio jets launched by growing supermassive black holes…
Earth 16,000 MPH Faster, 2000 Light-Years Closer to Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way
Earth just got 7 km/s (~16,000 mph) faster and about 2000 light-years closer to the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way…
Combining Quantum Physics and the Theory of Relativity: Sound-Waves From a Quantum Vacuum at the Black Hole Laboratory
Researchers have developed a new theory for observing a quantum vacuum that could lead to new insights into the behavior of black holes. The Unruh…
Black Hole or No Black Hole: Astrophysics of Neutron Star Collisions
A new study lead by GSI scientists and international colleagues investigates black-hole formation in neutron star mergers. Computer simulations show that the properties of dense…
Wealth of Discoveries From Gravitational-Wave Data Leads to Most Detailed Black Hole “Family Portrait”
New analysis of gravitational-wave data leads to wealth of discoveries. An international research collaboration including Northwestern University astronomers has produced the most detailed family portrait…
Galactic Bars: Feeding a Galaxy’s Nuclear Black Hole
A galactic bar is the approximately linear structure of stars and gas that stretches across the inner regions of some galaxies. The bar stretches from…
Tracing Ripples in the Fabric of Spacetime to Reveal the Origins of Merging Black Holes
Over the past five years, astronomy has been revolutionized as scientists have used ripples in the fabric of spacetime, called gravitational waves, to reveal the…
Astronomers Discover First BL Lacertae Galaxy at Cosmic Dawn: The Farthest Black Hole From a Rare Family of Galaxies
An international team of astronomers has identified the farthest example of a rare class of gamma-ray emitting galaxies. The so-called BL Lacertae object was discovered…
Solving the Equations of General Relativity for Colliding Black Holes
Final Dance of Unequal Black Hole Partners Rochester Institute of Technology scientists perform first-ever simulation of large mass ratio black hole merger on Frontera. Solving…
Slow Spin of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
Researchers from CIERA and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian put a limit on the spin of the supermassive black hole in the…
Stranger Than Fiction: The Monster in the Middle of the Milky Way Is…Spinning Slowly?
The monstrous black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy—now of Nobel Prize fame—is proving yet again to be stranger than fiction. New…
Andrea Ghez Awarded 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for Supermassive Black Hole Discovery
Andrea Ghez (Caltech MS ’89, PhD ’92), the Lauren B. Leichtman and Arthur E. Levine Professor of Astrophysics at UCLA, has won the 2020 Nobel…