Universe Today

December 23, 2024December 23, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

How Did Black Holes Grow So Quickly? The Jets

Artist’s impression of a bright, very early active galactic nucleus. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/B. Saxton

Within nearly every galaxy is a supermassive black hole. The beast at the heart of our galaxy contains the mass of millions of suns, while some of the largest supermassive black holes can be more than a billion solar masses. For years, it was thought that these black holes grew in mass over time, only reaching their current size after a billion years or more. But observations from the Webb telescope show that even the youngest galaxies contain massive black holes. So how could supermassive black holes grow so large so quickly? The key to the answer could be the powerful jets black holes can produce.

December 22, 2024December 17, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

Quantum Correlations Could Solve the Black Hole Information Paradox

Artist view of a black hole ringing down into a stable state. Credit: Yasmine Steele at University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign

The black hole information paradox has puzzled physicists for decades. New research shows how quantum connections in spacetime itself may resolve the paradox, and in the process leave behind a subtle signature in gravitational waves.

December 22, 2024December 22, 2024 by Matt Williams

M87 Releases a Rare and Powerful Outburts of Gamma-ray Radiation

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the giant galaxy M87 shows a 3,000-light-year-long jet of plasma blasting from the galaxy's 6.5-billion-solar-mass central black hole. The blowtorch-like jet seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. These novae are not caught inside the jet, but are apparently in a dangerous neighbourhood nearby. During a recent 9-month survey, astronomers using Hubble found twice as many of these novae going off near the jet as elsewhere in the galaxy. The galaxy is the home of several trillion stars and thousands of star-like globular star clusters. [Image description: A Hubble photo of galaxy M87, which resembles a translucent, fuzzy white cotton ball. The brightness decreases gradually out in all directions from a bright white point of light at the centre. A wavy blue-white jet of material extends from the point-like core outward to the upper right, about halfway across the galaxy. Stars speckle the background.]

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration made history when it released the first-ever image of a black hole. The image captured the glow of the accretion disk surrounding the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the M87 galaxy, located 54 million light-years away. Because of its appearance, the disk that encircles this SMBH beyond its event horizon (composed of gas, dust, and photons) was likened to a “ring of fire.” Since then, the EHT has been actively imaging several other SMBH, including Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way!

In addition, the EHT has revealed additional details about M87, like the first-ever image of a photon ring and a picture that combines the SMBH and its relativistic jet emanating from its center. Most recently, the EHT released the results of its latest observation campaign. These observations revealed a spectacular flare emerging from M87’s powerful relativistic jet. This flare released a tremendous amount of energy in multiple wavelengths, including the first high-energy gamma-ray outburst observed in over a decade.

December 22, 2024December 22, 2024 by Scott Alan Johnston

Astronomers Find a Black Hole Tipped Over on its Side

Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy NGC 5084’s core. A dark, vertical line near the center shows the curve of a dusty disk orbiting the core, whose presence suggests a supermassive black hole within. The disk and black hole share the same orientation, fully tipped over from the horizontal orientation of the galaxy. NASA/STScI, M. A. Malkan, B. Boizelle, A.S. Borlaff. HST WFPC2, WFC3/IR/UVIS.

Almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole churning away at its core. In most cases, these black holes spin in concert with their galaxy, like the central hub of a cosmic wagon wheel. But on December 18, 2024, NASA researchers announced they had discovered a galaxy whose black hole appears to have been turned on its side, spinning out of alignment with its host galaxy.

December 21, 2024December 21, 2024 by Matt Williams

NASA is Developing Solutions for Lunar Housekeeping’s Biggest Problem: Dust!

Habitats grouped together on the rim of a lunar crater, known as the Moon Village. Credit: ESA

Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send the first astronauts to the Moon since the Apollo Era before 2030. They will be joined by multiple space agencies, like the ESA and China, who plan to send astronauts (and “taikonauts”) there for the first time. Beyond this, all plan to build permanent habitats in the South Pole-Aitken Basin and the necessary infrastructure that will lead to a permanent human presence. This presents many challenges, the most notable being those arising from the nature of the lunar environment.

Aside from the extremes in temperature, a 14-day diurnal cycle, and the airless environment, there’s the issue of lunar regolith (aka moondust). In addition to being coarse and jagged, lunar regolith sticks to everything because it is electrostatically charged. Because of how this dust plays havoc with astronaut health, equipment, and machinery, NASA is developing technologies to mitigate dust buildup. Seven of these experiments will be tested during a flight test using a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket to evaluate their ability to mitigate lunar dust.

December 21, 2024December 17, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

Where’s the Most Promising Place to Find Martian Life?

In this April 30, 2021, file Image taken by the Mars Perseverance rover and made available by NASA, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter, right, flies over the surface of the planet. A new study suggests water on Mars may be more widespread and recent than previously thought. Scientists reported the finding from China's Mars rover in Science Advances on Friday, April 28, 2023. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

New research suggests that our best hopes for finding existing life on Mars isn’t on the surface, but buried deep within the crust.

December 20, 2024December 17, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

Can Entangled Particles Communicate Faster than Light?

Illustration depicting quantum entanglement between particles. Credit: ATLAS Experiment

Entanglement is perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of quantum mechanics. On its surface, entanglement allows particles to communicate over vast distances instantly, apparently violating the speed of light. But while entangled particles are connected, they don’t necessarily share information between them.

December 20, 2024December 20, 2024 by Mark Thompson

IceCube Just Spent 10 Years Searching for Dark Matter

IceCube Neutrino Observatory in 2023 by Christopher Michel

Neutrinos are tricky little blighters that are hard to observe. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica was built to detect neutrinos from space. It is one of the most sensitive instruments built with the hope it might help uncover evidence for dark matter. Any dark matter trapped inside Earth, would release neutrinos that IceCube could detect. To date, and with 10 years of searching, it seems no excess neutrinos coming from Earth have been found!

December 20, 2024December 20, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Star Devouring Black Hole Spotted by Astronomers

Recreation of a burst, identified as CSS161010, in which a small black hole swallows a star. Credits: Gabriel Pérez (IAC)

A team of astronomers have detected a surprisingly fast and bright burst of energy from a galaxy 500 million light years away. The burst of radiation peaked in brightness just after 4 day and then faded quickly. The team identified the burst, which was using the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey with supporting observations from the Gran Telescopio Canarias, as the result of a small black hole consuming a star. The discovery provides an exciting insight into stellar evolution and a rare cosmic phenomenon.

December 19, 2024December 17, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

What Makes Brown Dwarfs So Weird?

This artist concept portrays the brown dwarf W1935. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

Meet the brown dwarf: bigger than a planet, and smaller than a star. A category of its own, it’s one of the strangest objects in the universe.