dark hole surrounded by hot disk of swirling gas and shooting out a jet from its rotation axis

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Black Hole May Have Formed by Direct Collapse

Astronomers may have spotted a supermassive black hole in the early universe that formed when a gargantuan gas cloud imploded.

Blazar (art)

Black Holes

Blazar's Outburst Hid Repeating Signal

Pulses originating almost a billion light-years away hint at extreme physics near a supermassive black hole.

Spiral galaxy NGC 1097, close-up on central region

Black Holes

Magnetic "Spoon" Feeds Supermassive Black Hole

Astronomers have imaged the magnetic field along which gas flows to a galaxy's central black hole.

Artist's impression of AGN

Galaxies

Supermassive Black Hole Hides Behind a Ring of Dust

A high-resolution infrared image has revealed a dust screen obscuring a gas-devouring supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy NGC 1068, confirming 30-year-old predictions.

OJ 287 (artist's concept)

Black Holes

Black Hole Duo Flares Right on Time

Astronomers have forecast a flare from a supermassive black hole duo 3.5 billion light-years away.

Dwarf Galaxy

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

More Big Black Holes Found in Small Galaxies

In the quest to discover how massive black holes form, astronomers have spotted several of these objects in some of the smallest galaxies yet found to host them.

Wind flowing out of a barred spiral galaxy

Galaxies

Ring Found Around a Galaxy’s “Hidden” Black Hole

A team of astronomers has taken a close look at a nearby galaxy — and discovered an unusual structure that sheds light on supermassive black holes’ relationships with their host galaxies.

Black Holes

Watching a Quasar Shut Down

Over the course of ten years, a once-brilliant quasar seems to have stopped gobbling down nearby gas.

Quasar illustration

Galaxies

The Quasar Main Sequence

A new diagram might link the diverse visible-light characteristics of quasars to two physical properties — essentially, their accretion rate and orientation. If the analysis holds up, it could point the way toward a long-sought unification.

Fornax galaxy cluster, enhanced

Black Holes

Peering Into Black Holes' Pasts

Galaxies’ central black holes are surprisingly simple creatures at heart, but they have a complicated past. New studies are starting to remove history’s obfuscating veil.

Galaxies

Spotting a Nearby Quasar’s Winds

A neighboring galaxy’s central black hole powers strong winds, allowing astronomers — for the first time — to spot those gales pushing out star-forming gas.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2000/2000/37/image/a/

Cosmology

Dust in the Heart of Circinus

Infrared observations of the Circinus Galaxy may help reveal the shape of the dusty region fueling its active galactic nucleus and shed light on what governs dust structures in other galaxies.