NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a cosmic "ghost" lurking around a distant supermassive black hole. This is the first detection of such a high-energy apparition, and scientists think it is evidence of a huge eruption produced by the black hole. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

A coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center harbors a hidden black hole surrounded by a storm of star formation.

The galaxy, called NGC 1097, is located 50 million light-years from Earth. It is spiral-shaped like our own Milky Way, with long, spindly arms of stars. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a study has confirmed.

The black hole is four million times heavier than our Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal. picked by AutumnLotus 12 months ago

Some of the biggest black holes in the nearby Universe may be much larger than previously thought.

A reassessment of the monster hole at the core of the M87 galaxy suggests it could have 6.4 billion times the mass of our own Sun. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

A new study using results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory provides one of the best pieces of evidence yet that many supermassive black holes are spinning extremely rapidly. The whirling of these giant black holes drives powerful jets that pump huge amounts of energy into their environment and affects galaxy growth. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

A jet of gas spewing from a huge black hole has mysteriously brightened, flaring to 90 times its normal glow. picked by AutumnLotus 7 months ago

An electromagnetic black hole has been created for the first time. It works at microwave frequencies but it is expected to be able to eventually catch visible light as well. This would open up new possibilities for solar power cells. picked by 2manyusernames 1 month ago

Astronomers have used two different telescopes simultaneously to study the violent flares from the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way. They have detected outbursts from this region, known as Sagittarius A*, which reveal material being stretched out as it orbits in the intense gravity close to the central black hole. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

The new method to create a tiny quantum sized black hole would allow researchers to better understand what physicist Stephen Hawking proposed more than 35 years ago: black holes are not totally void of activity; they emit photons, which is now known as Hawking radiation. picked by kakana 3 months ago

In a distant galaxy, a star orbiting a massive central black hole strays too close to the insatiable giant and is torn apart. But before it can be devoured, the star lets out one last scream in a flare of light that slowly echoes across the galaxy. Astronomers on Earth pick up this faint call and use it to map the nucleus of the galaxy from which it emanated. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

What do you get when you take not one, not four, not eight, but sixteen PS3s and chain them together like some crazy video game test center configuration for extremely lucky children? Simple: The relatively affordable power to answer the question "At what speed to vibrating black holes stop vibrating?" picked by punthe 11 months ago

Astronomers are getting a close-up look at a cosmic eating machine: a spinning black hole that devours the mass equivalent of two Earths per hour, verging on the limit of its feeding ability. picked by bingo 6 months ago

Astronomers are working to tie together a network of microwave telescopes across the planet to make a single instrument with the most acute vision yet. They will turn this giant eye towards what they believe is a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, code name Sagittarius A* picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

A sleep-deprived office worker accidentally discovers a black hole and then greed gets the better of him...
Nice short movie picked by wildminou 1 year ago

The galaxy, as large as the Milky Way, is about 12.8 billion light-years away and harbors a supermassive black hole that contains at least a billion times as much matter as our sun. The universe is about 13.7 billion years old, and faraway objects like this are seen as they existed near the dawn of time, their light just now arriving at Earth. picked by kakana 3 months ago

The scientists, led by Sean Farrell of the University of Leicester, England, said the newly found black hole weighs more than 500 solar masses and is a missing link between lighter stellar-mass and heavier super-massive black holes. picked by kakana 5 months ago

The creation of an acoustic black hole leaves the way open for the discovery of Hawking radiation.

Yeah! picked by suebe 6 months ago

Astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen "dark matter." While earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this new discovery dwarfs them all. picked by 2manyusernames 2 years ago

This Chandra X-ray Observatory image shows the debris of a massive star explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy about 160,000 light years from Earth. The supernova remnant (SNR) shown here, N132D, is the brightest in the Magellanic clouds, and belongs to a rare class of oxygen-rich remnants. Most of the oxygen that we breathe on Earth is thought to have come from explosions similar... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Spitzer Space Telescopes show that the vicinities around the black holes could be backing up with excess matter - the black holes just can’t consume it fast enough to clear the space. When this happens, the matter heats up, and releases a tremendous amount of energy. picked by 2manyusernames 3 years ago