Black Holes
Supermassive black holes can cloak themselves in a cocoon of dust, making them invisible even when they should be bright quasars
Quasars are the most powerful sources of light in the universe, but sometimes they're hard to find. A team of…
A ring of high-energy particles surrounding a black hole suddenly disappeared
In March 2018 astronomers watched a massive black hole surge in brightness. Then over the following year, its ring of…
A Black Hole Popping Out of a Traversable Wormhole Should Give Off a Very Specific Signal in Gravitational Waves
Gravitational wave astronomy has changed the way we view the cosmos. In only a few years we have observed the…
If Planet 9 is a Primordial Black Hole, We Might Be Able to See Flares When it Consumes Comets
A comet-eating black hole the size of a planet? It's possible. And if there's one out there in the distant…
There’s a Black Hole With 34 Billion Times the Mass of the Sun, Eating Roughly a Star Every Day
In the 1960s, astronomers began theorizing that there might be black holes in the Universe that are so massive -…
It might just be possible to see a light flash too when black holes merge
Black hole merger events are some of the most energetic, fearsomely energetic events in all the cosmos. When black holes…
How an Advanced Civilization Could Exploit a Black Hole for Nearly Limitless Energy
A black hole as a source of energy? We know black holes as powerful singularities, regions in space time where…
Astronomers Just Detected Either the Least Massive Black Hole, or a Strange and Massive Neutron Star
Somewhere around 2.5 solar masses is the line between black holes and neutron stars. Now we've found an object right…
Supermassive Black Holes Grew by Consuming Gas and Entire Stars
Where do they come from, those beguiling singularities that flummox astrophysicists—and the rest of us. Sure, we understand the processes…
About 3.5 Million Years Ago, a Stream of Gas Outside the Milky Way Would Have Lit Up the Night Sky
It's a truism to point out that modern humans have only been around for the blink of an eye, relative…