When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An illustration shows a medium-mass black hole in space. | Credit: Robert Lea For decades, astronomers have searched, without much joy, for signs of “missing link” black holes—black holes with masses between “stellar-mass black holes” and “supermassive black … Read more
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the closest massive black hole ever discovered: a cosmic giant “frozen in time.” As an example of an elusive “intermediate-mass black hole,” the object could serve as a missing link in understanding the connection between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. The black hole appears to have a … Read more
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have observed the dramatic “dance” between a supermassive black hole and two satellite galaxies. The observations could help scientists better understand how galaxies and supermassive black holes grew in the early universe. This particular supermassive black hole is feeding on surrounding matter, powering a bright quasar that … Read more
Quasars, the brightest objects in the universe, could act as cosmic signposts, directing astronomers to elusive pairs of supermassive black holes. Although scientists are aware that supermassive black holes with masses millions or even billions of times that of the sun reside at the hearts of most, if not all, large galaxies, binary pairs of … Read more
The rate at which the universe is expanding is accelerating across the cosmos, driven by a mysterious force known as dark energy. However, new research suggests that this may not be the case at the edges of black holes. Rather than suggesting that dark energy does not act at the boundaries of black holes, this … Read more
Scientists have discovered that unusually massive black holes appear to be absent from the Milky Way’s diffuse outer halo. The discovery could spell bad news for theories that the most mysterious form of “stuff” in the universe, dark matter, is made up of ancient black holes that formed in the first moments after the Big … Read more
The history of the black hearts of galaxies is almost completely told for the first time, when astronomers combined X-ray observations with detailed supercomputer models to record the growth of galaxies. supermassive black holes more than 12 billion years of cosmic history. The scientists have shown that the black hole forms the core of our … Read more
Scientists have found strong evidence that some massive stars end their existence with a whimper, not a bang, and sink into one black hole of their own making without the light and fury of one supernova. To understand why this is important, we need to start with a crash course in stellar evolution. Stars generate … Read more
The ‘wobbly’ remains of a star that died a gruesome death in the maw of a supermassive black hole have helped reveal the speed at which its cosmic predator spins. Supermassive black holes are believed to form from successive mergers of smaller black holes, each of which brings with it an angular momentum that accelerates … Read more
Scientists have confirmed for the first time that the fabric of spacetime takes a “final plunge” at the edge of a black hole. The observation of this crashing region around black holes was made by astrophysicists at Oxford University Physics, and helps validate a key prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 theory of gravity: general relativity. … Read more