Black Holes
A Virtual Galactic Smash-Up!
An online simulator for galactic collisions (Adrian Price-Whelan/Columbia University) Have you ever had the desire to build your own galaxies,…
The Milky Way’s Black Hole Shoots Out Brightest Flare Ever
This false-color image shows the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy as seen by Chandra. The bright, point-like source…
Astronomers Find Ultimate Oxymoron: A Small Supermassive Black Hole
There's jumbo shrimp and accurate rumors; now there's even a mini supermassive black hole. Astronomers have identified the smallest supermassive…
Integral: Ten Years Tracking Extreme Radiation Across the Universe
Caption: Artist's impression of ESA's orbiting gamma-ray observatory Integral. Image credit: ESA Integral, ESA's International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory launched ten…
Monster Black Holes Lurk at the Edge of Time
The reddish object in this infrared image is ULASJ1234+0907, located about 11 billion light-years from Earth. The red color comes…
Rare X-Ray Nova Reveals a New Black Hole in the Milky Way
Swift J1745-26, with a scale of the moon as it would appear in the field of view from Earth. This…
Two Stars Do a Short-Orbit Tango Around the Milky Way’s Black Hole
Astronomers have known for some time there was one star orbiting fairly close to the black hole at the center…
What Happens When Supermassive Black Holes Merge?
Frame from a simulation of the merger of two black holes and the resulting emission of gravitational radiation (NASA/C. Henze)…
Using Gravity to Peer into the Most Violent Places in the Universe: Colliding Black Holes
Simulation of colliding black holes Nothing matches the destructive power of a black hole; a singularity of dense matter with…
Hot Dog! WISE Finds a Bounty of Black Holes
From a NASA press release: NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive…