black hole

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Black Hole Jets Shoot Plasma for 23M Light-Years

Porphyrion jets are the longest ever seen

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a record-breaking pair of jets streaming from a black hole in a distant galaxy. The jets shooting hot plasma are the largest ever spotted—about as long as 140 Milky Way galaxies lined up end-to-end, the AP reports. The discovery, made using images from a European radio...

This Is the Fastest-Growing Black Hole Ever Discovered

'This quasar is the most violent place that we know in the universe,' says lead scientist

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered what may be the brightest object in the universe, a quasar with a black hole at its heart growing so fast that it swallows the equivalent of a sun a day. As the AP reports, the record-breaking quasar shines 500 trillion times brighter than our sun. The...

'Cosmic Beast' in Night Sky Blows Our Black Hole Away

Oldest black hole ever discovered formed just 470M years after the Big Bang

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered the oldest black hole yet, a cosmic beast formed a mere 470 million years after the Big Bang. The findings, published Monday, confirm what until now were theories that supermassive black holes existed at the dawn of the universe, per the AP . NASA's James Webb Space...

It Was Something Mankind Had Never Seen. Now It's Clearer

The first-ever image of a black hole gets sharpened with help from AI

(Newser) - It was something mankind had never seen before—and now we're seeing it like never before. The first-ever image of a black hole captured in 2019 revealed a fuzzy, fiery doughnut-shaped object. Now, researchers have used artificial intelligence to give that cosmic beauty shot a touch-up. The updated picture,...

NASA: This Is What a Black Hole Sounds Like

Sound from Perseus galaxy cluster is pretty spooky, listeners say

(Newser) - Sound does exist in space, NASA says—and some of it is pretty spooky. NASA's exoplanets team tweeted a 34-second clip of the sound of a black hole Sunday, saying that while sound waves can't travel in a vacuum, a "galaxy cluster has so much gas that...

Milky Way's Black Hole Is Unveiled
Milky Way's
Black Hole
Is Unveiled
May 12, 2022 10:04 AM CDT

Milky Way's Black Hole Is Unveiled

Astronomers offer first look at 'gentle giant' Sagittarius A*

(Newser) - The world got a look Thursday at the first wild but fuzzy image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, per the AP . Astronomers believe nearly all galaxies, including our own, have these giant black holes at their center, where light and matter...

Our 'Nearest Black Hole' Isn't a Black Hole at All
Our 'Nearest Black Hole'
Isn't a Black Hole at All
NEW STUDY
Mar 2, 2022 12:37 PM CST

Our 'Nearest Black Hole' Isn't a Black Hole at All

New research indicates 'vampire' star is feeding on its neighbor

(Newser) - European astronomers have put out something of a retraction: that black hole said to be the closest to Earth ever found —well, it doesn't exist. They're not too bothered, however. European Southern Observatory emeritus astronomer Dietrich Baade, co-author of the new research, says their error led to...

Among Nobel Winners: Guy Who Proved Einstein Wrong

Physics honor will be split between 3 scientists for their work on black holes

(Newser) - Three physicists have won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for black hole discoveries and will split the $1.1 million award. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Tuesday that Briton Roger Penrose will receive half of this year's prize "for the discovery that black hole...

Scientists' Understanding of Black Holes Is Rattled

2 black holes merged into never-before-seen size

(Newser) - Black holes are getting stranger—even to astronomers, who've now detected the signal from a long-ago violent collision of two black holes that created a new one of a size that had never been seen before. "It's the biggest bang since the Big Bang observed by humanity,...

Scientists Just Found Closest Black Hole to Earth

'Washington, DC, would quite easily fit into the black hole'

(Newser) - Meet your new but shy galactic neighbor: A black hole left over from the death of a fleeting young star, per the AP . European astronomers have found the closest black hole to Earth yet, so near that the two stars dancing with it can be seen by the naked eye....

This Black Hole Can't Exist. And There It Is

LB-1 is way more massive than other stellar black holes in our galaxy

(Newser) - A stellar black hole, 70 times the mass of our sun? Not likely, experts said—and yet, there it is. A group of Chinese-led scientists have spotted this "monster" black hole some 15,000 light-years away and dubbed it LB-1, the Washington Post reports. "Black holes of such...

Star Will 'Die All Alone' After Being 'Evicted' by Black Hole

Launched from Milky Way center, S5-HVS1 is going so fast it won't ever be able to get back to our galaxy

(Newser) - A "serendipitous discovery" has been made, and it's an exciting but bittersweet one. Five million years ago, a star got too close to what Space.com calls the Milky Way's "heart of darkness"—a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A* — and got hurled away...

Black Holes Aren't All What We Thought
Black Holes Contain
a Mysterious Force
new study
Oct 5, 2019 1:30 PM CDT

Black Holes Contain a Mysterious Force

Some of them are helping the universe expand, study says

(Newser) - Black holes are dense singularities that suck up matter, right? Not always, according to two scientists who say some black holes are likely objects filled with a mysterious energy. In Astrophysical Journal , Kevin Croker and Joel Weiner argue that the expansion of the universe—which is accelerating, apparently due to...

Planet 9 Might Be a Black Hole
Planet 9 Might Not Be a Planet
new study
Sep 28, 2019 11:30 AM CDT

Planet 9 Might Not Be a Planet

Two young PhDs offer a bold new theory

(Newser) - "What if Planet 9 is a Primordial Black Hole?" That's the title of a new paper about the mysterious gravity source at the edge of our solar system, Business Insider reports. Posted Tuesday on arXiv , the paper suggests that the still-unseen source—which some call Planet Nine, or...

Trolls Target Female Scientist
Trolls Target Female Scientist
Apr 13, 2019 2:50 PM CDT

Trolls Target Female Scientist

Online commentators diminish the work of Katie Boumann

(Newser) - Katie Boumann's rise to scientific stardom came with a downside: online trolls who claimed her work was really done by a man, CNN reports. The 29-year-old MIT graduate helped create the algorithms and imaging process that allowed scientists to produce the first-ever image of a black hole on Wednesday....

This Isn't Just a Black Hole. It's 'Powehi'

A Hawaiian name is given in honor of its contribution

(Newser) - "As soon as he said it, I nearly fell off my chair." That was the reaction from the deputy director of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. It's one of two telescopes on Mauna Kea that was used to produce the first-ever image of...

Black Hole Image Makes a Star Out of Scientist

Katie Bouman's team developed needed algorithm

(Newser) - For the rest of the world, it was an incredible first: a stunning image of a black hole 55 million light-years from Earth. For Katie Bouman , it was all that, plus the culmination of three years of work, the realization of a goal that scientists thought to be impossible, and...

This Is a Sight No Human Has Ever Seen Before
This Is a Sight No Human
Has Ever Seen Before
the rundown
Apr 10, 2019 10:12 AM CDT

This Is a Sight No Human Has Ever Seen Before

Black hole is in the galaxy Messier 87, or M87

(Newser) - Mankind has now something it has never seen before: an image of "the most mysterious objects in the universe"—the black hole. On Wednesday, six simultaneous press conferences were held around the globe, in Washington, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo, reports Reuters . There, researchers shared the first...

No One's Ever Seen a Black Hole Pic. That May Change
We May Soon See Something
'No Human Has Ever Seen'
in case you missed it
Apr 7, 2019 3:52 PM CDT

We May Soon See Something 'No Human Has Ever Seen'

Scientists may reveal photo of Sagittarius A* black hole in Milky Way

(Newser) - Mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 10: You won't want to miss the chance to possibly see "something no human has ever seen before." That's how Popular Mechanics is framing the big reveal scientists are expected to make—a photo of Sagittarius A*, a black hole...

Smaller Galaxy on Track to Smash Into Milky Way
Our Milky Way
Is Headed Toward
a Violent 'Merger'
NEW STUDY
Jan 4, 2019 10:39 AM CST

Our Milky Way Is Headed Toward a Violent 'Merger'

But we've got about 2 billion years to prepare

(Newser) - It'll be a fireworks show for the ages, but you won't be around to see it. Consider that a blessing in disguise: The display expected by astrophysicists at Durham University in the UK will only come as a nearby galaxy smashes into our own in about 2 billion...

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