Black Holes News

April 18, 2024

Top Headlines

Most Massive Stellar Black Hole in Our Galaxy Found

Apr. 16, 2024 — Astronomers have identified the most massive stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. This black hole was spotted in data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission because it imposes an odd 'wobbling' motion on the companion ...

Chemical Reactions Can Scramble Quantum Information as Well as Black Holes

Apr. 5, 2024 — A team of researchers has shown that molecules can be as formidable at scrambling quantum information as black holes by combining mathematical tools from black hole physics and chemical physics and testing their theory in chemical ...

Stellar Collisions Produce Strange, Zombie-Like Survivors

Apr. 4, 2024 — Densely packed, fast-moving stars at the Milky Way's center can collide with each other. New research uses simulations to explore the outcomes of these collisions. Some collisions are more like 'violent high fives' while others are full-on ...

'Cosmic Cannibals' Expel Jets Into Space at 40 Percent the Speed of Light

Mar. 27, 2024 — Astronomers have measured the speed of fast-moving jets in space, crucial to star formation and the distribution of elements needed for life. The jets of matter, expelled by stars deemed 'cosmic cannibals', were measured to travel at over one-third ...

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Persistent Hiccups in a Far-Off Galaxy Draw Astronomers to New Black Hole Behavior

Mar. 27, 2024 — Astronomers have found that a previously quiet black hole, which sits at the center of a galaxy about 800 million light years away, has suddenly ...

Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiraling at the Edge of Milky Way's Central Black Hole

Mar. 27, 2024 — A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the ...

Sleeping Supermassive Black Holes Awakened Briefly by Shredded Stars

Mar. 26, 2024 — Astronomers have concluded that an obscure class of galaxies known as Compact Symmetric Objects, or CSOs, are not young as previously thought but rather lead relatively short ...

Quantum Tornado Provides Gateway to Understanding Black Holes

Mar. 20, 2024 — Scientists have created a giant quantum vortex to mimic a black hole in superfluid helium that has allowed them to see in greater detail how analogue black holes behave and interact with their ...

Largest-Ever Map of Universe's Active Supermassive Black Holes Released

Mar. 18, 2024 — Astronomers have charted the largest-ever volume of the universe with a new map of active supermassive black holes living at the centers of galaxies. Called quasars, the gas-gobbling black holes are, ...

Finding New Physics in Debris from Colliding Neutron Stars

Mar. 6, 2024 — Neutron star mergers are a treasure trove for new physics signals, with implications for determining the true nature of dark matter, according to ...

What Makes Black Holes Grow and New Stars Form? Machine Learning Helps Solve the Mystery

Mar. 5, 2024 — It takes more than a galaxy merger to make a black hole grow and new stars form: machine learning shows cold gas is needed too to initiate rapid ...

Webb Unlocks Secrets of One of the Most Distant Galaxies Ever Seen

Mar. 4, 2024 — Looking deeply into space and time, astronomers have studied the exceptionally luminous galaxy GN-z11, which existed when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was only about 430 million years ...

Astronomers Measure Heaviest Black Hole Pair Ever Found

Feb. 29, 2024 — Using archival data from the Gemini North telescope, a team of astronomers has measured the heaviest pair of supermassive black holes ever found. The merging of two supermassive black holes is a ...

Webb Finds Evidence for Neutron Star at Heart of Young Supernova Remnant

Feb. 22, 2024 — NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has found the best evidence yet for emission from a neutron star at the site of a recently observed supernova. The supernova, known as SN 1987A, was a core-collapse ...

Brightest and Fastest-Growing: Astronomers Identify Record-Breaking Quasar

Feb. 22, 2024 — Astronomers have characterized a bright quasar, finding it to be not only the brightest of its kind, but also the most luminous object ever observed. Quasars are the bright cores of distant galaxies ...

Black Hole at Center of the Milky Way Resembles a Football

Feb. 21, 2024 — The supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way is spinning so quickly it is warping the spacetime surrounding it into a shape that can look like a football, according to a new study. That ...

A Star Like a Matryoshka Doll: New Theory for Gravastars

Feb. 15, 2024 — If gravitational condensate stars (or gravastars) actually existed, they would look similar to black holes to a distant observer. Two theoretical physicists have now found a new solution to Albert ...

Which Came First: Black Holes or Galaxies?

Feb. 6, 2024 — Black holes not only existed at the dawn of time, they birthed new stars and supercharged galaxy formation, a new analysis of James Webb Space Telescope data ...

Astronomers Spot 18 Black Holes Gobbling Up Nearby Stars

Jan. 29, 2024 — Scientists have identified 18 new tidal disruption events (TDEs) -- extreme instances when a nearby star is tidally drawn into a black hole and ripped to shreds. The detections more than double the ...

Faint Features in Galaxy NGC 5728 Revealed

Jan. 25, 2024 — A new study describes the best method to improve images obtained by the James Webb Science Telescope (JWST) using a mathematical approach called ...

Astrophysical Jet Caught in a 'Speed Trap'

Jan. 25, 2024 — The microquasar SS 433 stands out as one of the most intriguing objects within our Milky Way. A pair of oppositely directed beams of plasma ('jets') spirals away perpendicularly from the ...

Lightest Black Hole or Heaviest Neutron Star? MeerKAT Uncovers a Mysterious Object in Milky Way

Jan. 18, 2024 — An international team of astronomers have found a new and unknown object in the Milky Way that is heavier than the heaviest neutron stars known and yet simultaneously lighter than the lightest black ...

Origin of Intense Light in Supermassive Black Holes and Tidal Disruption Events Revealed

Jan. 18, 2024 — A new study is a significant breakthrough in understanding Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) involving supermassive black holes. The new simulations accurately replicate the entire sequence of a TDE ...

Astronomers Detect Oldest Black Hole Ever Observed

Jan. 17, 2024 — Researchers have discovered the oldest black hole ever observed, dating from the dawn of the universe, and found that it is 'eating' its host galaxy to ...

Astronomers Produce Most Sensitive Radio Image Ever of Ancient Star Cluster

Jan. 16, 2024 — Astronomers have created the most sensitive radio image ever of a globular cluster, an ancient ball of tightly-packed ...

NASA Scientists Discover a Novel Galactic 'Fossil'

Jan. 12, 2024 — Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have discovered X-ray activity that sheds light on the evolution of ...

Close Encounters of the Supermassive Black Hole Kind

Jan. 11, 2024 — Astrophysicists have confirmed the accuracy of an analytical model that can unlock key information about supermassive black holes and the stars they ...

Interpreting the Afterglow of a Black Hole's Breakfast

Dec. 4, 2023 — An entirely new way to probe how active black holes behave when they eat has been discovered by an international team of ...

10-Billion-Year, 50,000-Light-Year Journey to Black Hole

Dec. 4, 2023 — A star near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy originated outside of the Galaxy according to a new study. This is the first time a star of extragalactic origin has been ...

New Theory Unites Einstein's Gravity With Quantum Mechanics

Dec. 4, 2023 — The prevailing assumption has been that Einstein's theory of gravity must be modified, or 'quantized', in order to fit within quantum theory. This is the approach of two leading ...

New Astrophysics Model Sheds Light on Additional Source of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts

Nov. 29, 2023 — Cutting-edge computer simulations combined with theoretical calculations are helping astronomers better understand the origin of some of the universe's most energetic and mysterious light shows ...

A Gamma-Ray Pulsar Milestone Inspires Innovative Astrophysics and Applications

Nov. 28, 2023 — Scientists have announced the discovery of nearly 300 gamma ray ...

Galactic 'Lightsabers': Answering Longstanding Questions About Jets from Black Holes

Nov. 14, 2023 — The one thing everyone knows about black holes is that absolutely everything nearby gets sucked into them. Almost everything, it turns out. Astrophysicists have now determined conclusively that ...

Mystery Resolved: Black Hole Feeding and Feedback at the Center of an Active Galaxy

Nov. 6, 2023 — Almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. An international research team has recently observed the Circinus galaxy, which is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, ...