Accretion as a research area investigates the physical processes by which diffuse material gravitationally aggregates to form larger astrophysical structures, including planets, stars, black holes, and galaxies. It encompasses the study of accretion disks, angular momentum transport, magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, radiative transfer, and the interplay between accretion flows and outflows or jets. This field integrates analytical theory, numerical simulations, and multiwavelength observations to quantify mass accretion rates, efficiency of gravitational energy conversion into radiation, and feedback on the surrounding medium, thereby constraining models of structure formation, compact object growth, and high-energy phenomena in various cosmic environments.
Astronomers using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) have found that when a supermassive black hole tears apart an unlucky star, the fireworks are not over when the first flash fades. Years after ...
Astronomy
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Thanks to the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM, University of Michigan researchers are helping chip away at one of astronomy's cosmic mysteries: The universe's most massive galaxies appear to be missing stars.
Astronomy
18 hours ago
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How supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of galaxies accrete material, how they feed back into the surrounding region, and how they regulate these processes to influence the evolution of their galaxies are all ...
Astronomy
Jun 11, 2026
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We don't know whether theorized primordial black holes (PBH) are real. If they are, they formed in the very early universe, when physics was much different. They had no stellar progenitors and were created by the direct collapse ...
Astronomy
Jun 8, 2026
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A team led by York University researchers has discovered the fastest wind near a supermassive black hole ever found at ultraviolet wavelengths, driven by the disk of matter (quasar) surrounding the black hole.
Astronomy
Jun 4, 2026
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NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. They also suggest a new role for Jupiter in the distribution ...
Astrobiology
Jun 3, 2026
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Galactic collisions are events of breathtaking proportions. The supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers plunge into a chaotic orbital dance that eventually coalesce into a single remnant. On their way to that point, ...
Astronomy
Jun 3, 2026
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Astronomers monitoring a nearby active galaxy for six years have watched its supermassive black hole dramatically wake up, brightening by a factor of 10 across ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths. The paper outlining the study ...
The rotation of a protoplanetary disk (a disk where planets are being formed) has been observed directly for the very first time by mapping the emissions from the dust grains within it. The disk in question surrounds the ...
Astronomy
Jun 1, 2026
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Supermassive black holes are the largest known black holes in the universe, sitting at the center of most large galaxies. They are sometimes described as cosmic monsters because they feed on surrounding gas and dust when ...
