Black Holes

A Black Hole Nibbles on a Star Every 22 Days, Slowly Consuming it

Astronomers working with NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have spotted something unusual. The observatory's X-Ray Telescope (XRT) has captured emissions…

1 year ago

Astronomers are Hoping the Event Horizon Telescope saw Pulsars Near the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope is a collection of radio telescopes across the globe that simultaneously gathered data about the Milky…

1 year ago

Astronomers Precisely Measure a Black Hole's Accretion Disk

Actively feeding supermassive black holes are known as quasars, and they can outshine all the stars of their host galaxy.…

1 year ago

Could This Supermassive Black Hole Only Have Formed by Direct Collapse?

One of the outstanding mysteries in astronomy is how supermassive black holes gained so much mass so early in the…

1 year ago

Does the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole Have a Companion?

Astronomers have found stellar mass and supermassive black holes, but they're still on the hunt for an intermediate size; black…

1 year ago

How Did Supermassive Black Holes Grow So Quickly, So Early?

Supermassive black holes haunt the cores of many galaxies. Yet for all we know about black holes (not nearly enough!),…

1 year ago

The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole had a Burst of Activity 200 Years Ago. We Just Saw the Echo.

We in the Milky Way Galaxy are pretty lucky to have a fairly quiet central supermassive black hole in Sgr…

1 year ago

Astronomers Have Never Detected Merging Supermassive Black Holes. That Might Be About to Change

A new study suggests that pulsars could act as natural gravitational wave sensors, setting limits on supermassive black hole mergers…

1 year ago

Pulsars Could Help Map the Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way

The BlackHoleCam project, part of the Event Horizon Telescope consortium, will use the powerful EHT array to search for pulsars…

1 year ago

If Black Holes Evaporate, Everything Evaporates

Stephen Hawking predicted that black holes wouldn't last forever, eventually evaporating into a smear of particles. According to a new…

1 year ago