supermassive black hole

Images from the Event Horizon Telescope prove that the compact radio source at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius ...

Hubble spots black hole “giving birth” to new star

by Mihai Andrei

January 24, 2022

Black holes may do more than just destroy -- they may also create new things.

These annotated images, obtained with the GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) between March and July 2021, show stars orbiting very close to Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. One of these stars, named S29, was observed as it was making its closest approach to the black hole at 13 billion kilometres, just 90 times the distance between the Sun and Earth. Another star, named S300, was detected for the first time in the new VLTI observations. To obtain the new images, the astronomers used a machine-learning technique, called Information Field Theory. They made a model of how the real sources may look, simulated how GRAVITY would see them, and compared this simulation with GRAVITY observations. This allowed them to find and track stars around Sagittarius A* with unparalleled depth and accuracy.

Astronomers zoom in on stars around Milky Way’s supermassive black hole

by Tibi Puiu

December 14, 2021

The new observations are 20 times closer and sharper than ever before.

What are Black Holes: The Journey From Theory to Reality

by Rob Lea

April 2, 2021

Black holes have firmly moved from the status of theoretical curiosity to physical reality. We follow that transformation and the ...

This artist’s impression shows how the distant quasar P172+18 and its radio jets may have looked. To date (early 2021), this is the most distant quasar with radio jets ever found and it was studied with the help of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. It is so distant that light from it has travelled for about 13 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was only about 780 million years old. (ESO)

Astronomers have discovered the most distant radio signal ever

by Rob Lea

March 8, 2021

Its source is a radio loud quasar blasting out jets when the universe was still in its infancy.

Astronomers found the oldest supermassive black hole — and they were puzzled by it

by Tibi Puiu

April 2, 2021

The giant black hole formed just 670 million years after the Big Bang.

The giant elliptical galaxy in the centre of this image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the most massive and brightest member of the galaxy cluster Abell 2261. Astronomers refer to it as the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). Spanning a little over one million light-years, the galaxy is about 20 times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers used Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 to measure the amount of starlight across the galaxy, catalogued as 2MASX J17222717+3207571 but more commonly called A2261-BCG (short for Abell 2261 brightest cluster galaxy). Abell 2261 is located three billion light-years away. The observations were taken between March and May 2011. The Abell 2261 cluster is part of a multi-wavelength survey called the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH).

NASA says a gargantuan supermassive black hole is somehow missing

by Tibi Puiu

April 2, 2021

The hunt is on for black hole with up 100 billion solar masses that is nowhere to be found.

Artist’s impression of star being tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole

Death By Spaghettification! Astronomers Spot a Star Being Consumed by a Black Hole

by Rob Lea

October 12, 2020

This could solve the mystery of tidal disruption events or ‘spaghettification.’

With the help of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have found six galaxies lying around a supermassive black hole, the first time such a close grouping has been seen within the first billion years of the Universe. This artist’s impression shows the central black hole and the galaxies trapped in its gas web. The black hole, which together with the disc around it is known as quasar SDSS J103027.09+052455.0, shines brightly as it engulfs matter around it. (ESO/L. Calçada)

‘Cosmic Web’ of a Supermassive Black Hole Ensnares Six Galaxies

by Rob Lea

October 1, 2020

Astronomers have discovered a tremendous cosmic web in the early Universe. Trapped within its threads, six galaxies feeding gas to ...

The extreme eruption occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, which is located about 390 million light-years from Earth. Credit:: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Naval Research Lab/Giacintucci, S.; XMM:ESA/XMM; Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRTN; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF.

Astronomers spot the largest explosion since the Big Bang

by Jordan Strickler

February 29, 2020

It was so big it punched a hole in space the size of 15 Milky Ways.

Artist’s conception of a dwarf galaxy, its shape distorted, most likely by a past interaction with another galaxy, and a massive black hole in its outskirts (pullout). The black hole is drawing in material that forms a rotating accretion disc and generates jets of material propelled outward. Image credit: Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Astrophysicists find more evidence of ‘wandering’ black holes

by Rob Lea

January 22, 2020

New research has uncovered the presence of at least thirteen ‘wandering’ black holes in dwarf galaxies. Something, that until recently ...

An artist’s conception of two black holes entwined in a gravitational tango. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Christopher Go.

There may be a second black hole at the center of our galaxy

by Contributing Author

March 7, 2023

Astronomers think that the Milky Way's supermassive black hole may have a companion -- and that could teach us more ...

This is an artist's impression of planets orbiting a supermassive black hole. (Kagoshima University)

Planets could orbit Supermassive Black Holes

by Rob Lea

November 26, 2019

A new theory suggests that planets could form in dense dust and gas clouds surrounding supermassive black holes at the ...

An artist’s impression of S5-HVS1’s ejection by Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of the galaxy. The black hole and the captured binary partner to S5-HVS1 are seen far away in the left corner of the picture, while S5-HVS1 is in the foreground, speeding away from them. ( James Josephides (Swinburne Astronomy Productions))

Runaway star ejected from the centre of the Milky Way at incredible speed

by Rob Lea

November 19, 2019

Astronomers have identified a runaway star travelling at an incredible 6 million kilometres per hour, ejected by the supermassive black ...

This artist’s impression shows the path of the star S2 as it passes very close to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. As it gets close to the black hole the very strong gravitational field causes the colour of the star to shift slightly to the red, an effect of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. In this graphic the colour effect and size of the objects have been exaggerated for clarity.

The supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way just got very hungry

by Tibi Puiu

September 12, 2019

This big boy just got the munchies.

A UA-led team of scientists generated millions of different universes on a supercomputer, each of which obeyed different physical theories for how galaxies should form. (Image: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz and the HFF Team/STScI)

Researchers simulate millions of virtual universes to study star formation

by Rob Lea

August 12, 2019

Two-thousand processors simulated more than 8 million universes and countless galaxies.

An artist visualization of the star S0–2 as it passes by the supermassive black hole at the Galactic centre. As the star gets closer to the supermassive black hole, light it emits experiences a gravitational redshift that is predicted by Einstein's General Relativity. By observing this redshift, we can test Einstein's theory of gravity (Nicole R. Fuller, National Science Foundation)

Einstein’s General Relativity passes the test at the centre of our Galaxy

by Rob Lea

July 26, 2019

A brave star and a supermassive black hole confirm Einstein's theory of general relativity.

The black hole at the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*. Credit: J.Davelaar 2018.

Check this out: mind blowing Virtual Reality simulation of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole

by Tibi Puiu

November 19, 2018

It's simply mesmerizing.