About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. These ‘relict’ neutrinos were created during the Big Bang and exist throughout the universe, but they can’t hurt you. In fact, it’s likely that just one of them will lightly tap an atom in your body throughout its entire life. Most neutrinos produced … Read more
Astronomers have imaged a feeding quasar powered by a black hole at the very edge of the universe, so far away that it was seen as it appeared less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang. The quasar, named SDSS J114816.64+525150.3, is powered by a supermassive black hole of more than 3 billion times … Read more
When it comes to primordial black holes being dark matter suspects, their alibi may fall apart. Small black holes, created seconds after the universe’s birth, can survive longer than expected, reviving suspicion that primordial black holes could be responsible for dark matter, the universe’s most mysterious stuff. Dark matter currently represents one of the most … Read more
Two supermassive black holes found in collisionally created ‘fossil galaxies’ are so massive that they refuse to collide and merge. The discovery could explain why supermassive black hole mergers, while theoretically predicted, have never been observed over time. The supermassive black hole system is located in the elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379. Together, the two black … Read more
A newly developed solution to the equations at the heart of Albert Einstein‘s most revolutionary theory suggests that hypothetical stars called “nestars” could be made of stacked gravitational stars, or “gravastars,” like Russian tea dolls, also known as matryoshka dolls. One of the most impressive things about Einstein’s 1915 theory of gravity, general relativity, is … Read more
Jean-Pierre Luminet Without a doubt, black holes are among the most mysterious types of objects in the universe. Scientists understood their existence in the early 20th century in the wake of Albert Einstein’s revolutionary proposals on gravity. It wasn’t until 1964 that scientists even claimed to have observed one, and it wasn’t until 2019 that … Read more
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole throwing a galactic-scale tantrum as it feeds, figuratively “turning the table” and cutting off the host system’s gas supply needed to give birth to stars. The table-turning behavior comes in the form of an ultra-fast wind emanating from the light-snacking supermassive black hole, which resides in a distinctly … Read more
It’s a cosmic jungle for stars that venture too close to black holes. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found 18 new examples of black holes tearing stars apart and feasting on their remains. This result more than doubles the number of horrific, star-crushing Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) observed in the local … Read more
Some of the largest, most intense regions of star formation are found in the smallest galaxies. Scientists think this is because stars that reach the end of their lives in so-called dwarf galaxies are more likely to turn into black holes rather than explode. supernovas. The contrast is so stark, the team says, that dwarf … Read more