Astronomical black holes are compact astrophysical systems characterized by regions of spacetime where gravity is so strong that no matter or radiation can escape beyond the event horizon. They are described by solutions to Einstein’s field equations, typically approximated by the Kerr or Schwarzschild metrics, and are defined by mass, spin, and (negligible) charge. Formed primarily via stellar core collapse or hierarchical mergers, they interact with their environments through accretion disks, relativistic jets, and gravitational-wave emission. Astronomical black holes span stellar-mass to supermassive regimes, influencing galactic dynamics, high-energy radiation processes, and cosmological structure formation.
New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed fresh details about one of the most luminous known objects in the universe: the dust-shrouded quasar W2246−0526, seen just 1.2 billion years after the Big ...
A team from Vienna and Frankfurt has found a formula describing a strange phenomenon: Space and time can form a kind of "crystal" that may turn into a black hole. The results are described in Physical Review Letters.
General Physics
May 21, 2026
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One of the most puzzling findings from the JWST's observations of the early universe is the size of black holes. According to our understanding of black hole growth, these early black holes are far more massive than expected. ...
Astronomy
May 20, 2026
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Astronomers have tracked a dramatic "changing-look" active galactic nucleus (AGN) whose central supermassive black hole appeared to switch off and then rapidly reignite. The galaxy, HE 1237−2252, dimmed in X-rays by a factor ...
We may be more in the dark about dark matter than previously thought, according to a new analysis of distant galaxy clusters. Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan, a leading theorist on the nature of black holes and dark ...
Astronomy
May 14, 2026
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Researchers have developed a technique to analyze how black holes "ring" when they collide and merge: one of the universe's most dramatic events. When black holes merge, the collision produces a new, larger black hole that ...
Astronomy
May 13, 2026
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If you've ever taken an introductory astronomy class, you've probably seen the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. This graph maps out the life cycle of stars by plotting their temperature against their luminosity, and has ...
Astronomy
May 12, 2026
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Dark matter is thought to make up most of the matter in the universe, but the only way it interacts with its surroundings is through gravity. If two colliding black holes spiral through a dense region of dark matter and merge, ...
Astronomy
May 12, 2026
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By analyzing the data from the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT), an international team of astronomers has discovered optical quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in a bright quasar known as 3C 454.3. It is so far one of the ...
Astronomers have discovered two early-universe galaxies where the central black holes appear to have grown far faster than their host galaxies. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal that the black ...
