21–40 of 229 results
Image of Milky Way's black hole shows golden ring with three spots in it

Black Holes

Searching for the Seeds of Supermassive Black Holes

The seeds of supermassive black holes could show up in an upcoming sky survey with JWST.

Gravitational waves from GW190521

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

The Challenge of Weird Black Hole Mergers

When spacetime shivers last only a fraction of a second — as in the case of the massive-black-hole merger GW190521 — astronomers struggle to uncover their origins.

Blazar (art)

Black Holes

X-rays Offer View Inside the Black Hole-Powered Plasma Guns

Polarized X-rays are helping astronomers take a closer look at blazars’ “plasma guns,” the particle jets powered by supermassive black holes.

Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3) up close

Explore the Night with Bob King

Sneak Peek at Two Promising Comets

Ready to chase comets? We look at two fuzzy solar system travelers that will keep you on your toes all fall and winter long.

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.

Black sphere near a glowing sphere

Black Holes

Wobbly Star Reveals the Closest Black Hole Yet

The most compelling dormant stellar-mass black hole candidate in the Milky Way orbits a Sun-like star only 1,570 light-years away.

Orange ring around dark center, with a hot bubble circling it

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Hotspot Zooms Around Our Galaxy’s Black Hole

Astronomers have detected a bubble of hot gas circling our galaxy’s central black hole soon after seeing a flare, suggesting both arose from the same process.

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.

Blazar (art)

Black Holes

Giant Black Holes Make Tiny, Ghost-like Particles

Blazars, the gas-guzzling black holes at the center of galaxies, could make most of the tiny particles known as neutrinos we catch on Earth.

Artist's impression of black hole binary

Black Holes

A Black Hole Lurks in a Galaxy Near Our Own

Astronomers have found a dormant black hole orbiting a massive blue star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

supercomputer simulation shows gas flows in multiple colors

Black Holes

Where Did the First Quasars Come From?

New research shows how black holes with tens of thousands of Suns' worth of mass can form in the universe's early years.

diffuse glow surrounding a bright core

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Monstrous Black Holes Spin More Slowly — But Why?

X-ray observations add to growing evidence that the most massive black holes have a different past than their lightweight peers.

a black dot at the center of a swirl of pink, purple, orange, grey, and other colors

Black Holes

Have We Found the First Rogue Black Hole in the Milky Way?

Hubble observations have revealed a stellar-mass compact object — a black hole or possibly a neutron star — wandering our galaxy.

Centaurus A galaxy

Black Holes

The Life and Times of Immortal Stars

Under the right conditions, stars could become immortal. How is this possible, and what does it mean for these stars’ surroundings?

black hole surrounded by a glowing orange ring

Black Holes

Astronomers Unveil Image of the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Using a worldwide array of telescopes, the Event Horizon Telescope team has given us our first look at Sagittarius A*.

The merger of a black-hole binary

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

10 New Merger Events in Gravitational-Wave Data

An independent team has found additional black hole mergers in LIGO data.

big, bright, bluish star surrounded by a disk and near a second big, bright bluish star

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

“Closest Black Hole” Doesn’t Exist, After All

Astronomers combined forces to confirm that a black hole proposed to lie a mere 1,000 light-years away isn’t really there.

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.

Supermassive black hole binary animation

Black Holes

These Two Black Hole Behemoths Will Merge in 10,000 Years

Astronomers have discovered a pair of supermassive black holes that whirl around each other every two years.

a large flat purple and gold disc in front of an orange orb on a black background

Black Holes

Black Hole Spins Crookedly

Astronomers have found a black hole leaning decidedly askew in its orbit with a star.