Astronomers have discovered one of the most powerful black hole eruptions ever – and this immense explosion, which took place almost 4 billion years ago, formed a pattern of stars in clusters that resemble jewelry. The star chain adorns a huge cluster of hundreds of galaxies called SDSS J1531; this body is located about 3.8 … 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
“Which came first: the galaxy or its monstrous black hole?” Technically, it’s an even older riddle than the chicken or the egg, even though we only became aware of it relatively recently. And according to new research, scientists may finally have an answer. It has long been believed that supermassive black holes that existed close … 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
NASA scientists have spotted a stunning cosmic fossil that was formed when a supermassive black hole erupted more than 5 million years ago. The team at the space agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center used the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) space telescope with help from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to spot the X-rays that outline cold … Read more