Swift Observatory spots a black hole snacking on a nearby star
Black holes can be hungry beasts, devouring anything that comes to close to them, including clouds of gas, rogue planets, and even stars. When stars get too close to a…
X-Ray Telescope Spots Black Hole Slowly Devouring a Star
On June 22, 2022, NASA’s Swift Observatory spotted something curious in a galaxy over 500 million light-years away. It was a routine outburst of gas that a team studying the…
Webb Telescope Data Suggests There May Not Be a Ton of Supermassive Black Holes
A team of researchers scrutinizing the Extended Groth Strip, a region of space between the constellations Ursa Major and Boötes, saw fewer growing supermassive black holes and less dust than…
Meet the ‘Event Horizon Explorer’, Which Aims to See Light Rings Around Black Holes
Astronomers transfixed the public in April 2019 when they released the first-ever image of a black hole, produced by radio wave data from a collaboration of telescopes around the world…
Scientists Propose Webb Telescope Has Detected Stars Powered by Dark Matter
Astronomers looking at ancient light seen by the Webb Space Telescope have found three pinpricks that they think could be “dark stars,” theoretical objects powered by dark matter. First Full-Color…
Astronomers Surprised By a Distant Black Hole Roaring Back to Life
Black holes often sit at the centers of galaxies, where they can gorge themselves on the superheated material that falls into their abyssal event horizons. Now, a team of astronomers…
Webb Space Telescope Discovers Farthest Active Supermassive Black Hole Known
Astronomers imaging the cosmos with the Webb Space Telescope have found the most distant active supermassive black hole yet. The black hole was “seen” as it was around 570 million…
Massive Black Holes Littered the Early Universe, Simulation Suggests
Since the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein were first detected in 2015, astrophysicists have been pondering the gravitational wave background—the cumulative undulations of these spacetime ripples as they cross the…
Astronomers just spotted the largest cosmic explosion ever seen
Astronomers recently observed the largest cosmic explosion ever seen, far brighter than a supernova and lasting for much longer too. They believe that the outpouring of light is due to…
See the terrifying scale of a supermassive black hole in NASA visualization
This week is black hole week, and NASA is celebrating by sharing some stunning visualizations of black holes, including a frankly disturbing visualization to help you picture just how large…