The center of a globular cluster with hundreds of thousands of stars colored red white and blue

Black Holes

Does This Star Cluster Host a Black Hole in Its Core?

The well-known star cluster Messier 4 might have an elusive, midsize black hole hidden at its center, but the evidence isn’t conclusive yet.

torn-apart star's innards spiral around black hole

Black Holes

Shredded Star Reveals a Dwarf Galaxy’s Central Black Hole

A luminous flare provides astronomers with a rare opportunity to measure the mass of an otherwise quiescent black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy.

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

Black Holes

Does the Andromeda Galaxy Harbor a Mid-weight Black Hole?

New observations suggest a black hole 100,000 times the mass of the Sun lurks in the center of a globular cluster of the Andromeda Galaxy.

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.

Black Holes

Scientists See Strong Evidence of Rare Middle-weight Black Hole

New observations give more fuel to the concept of intermediate-mass black holes.

47 Tucanae

Black Holes

Best Evidence Yet for an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole

An intermediate-mass black hole might be lurking within a dense stellar cluster — a discovery that could point toward how these oddities form.

Centaurus A and a neighboring X-ray flash

Black Holes

Brilliant X-ray Flashes from Faraway Black Holes?

Two sources tens of millions of light-years away have sent puzzling X-ray flares blazing our way. Now astronomers think they might have the answer: intermediate-mass black holes.

galaxy NGC 1313

Black Holes

New Mid-size Black Hole

Astronomers think a bright X-ray source in the galaxy NGC 1313 is a mid-size black hole.

dwarf disk galaxy RGG 118

Black Holes

Teeny Supermassive Black Hole

Astronomers have identified the smallest supermassive black hole ever detected in a galaxy’s center.

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2015/ngc2276/index.html

Black Holes

Potential Mid-size Black Hole Found

Scientists have found what seems to be an intermediate-mass black hole in a spiral galaxy 100 million light-years away. If its size is confirmed, it could provide much-needed insight into black hole evolution.

ULX in M82

Stellar Science

No Big Black Hole for Two ULXs

Two new studies suggest that ultraluminous X-ray sources are not all created by beefy black holes.