gravitational influence

Cracking! Some binary black holes can roll around each other in egg-shaped orbits

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Black Hole Week comes to a close today (May 10), and what better way to mark the occasion than with some ‘extraordinary egg’ science. Using gravitational wave measurements by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), based in the US, and the Virgo and KAGRA detectors, based in Italy and Japan respectively, scientists have discovered that … Read more

Astronomers witness eighteen ravenous black holes tearing and devouring stars

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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