https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Understanding the formation and evolution of the centers of galaxies is one of the most intriguing challenges in astrophysics. The new study aims to unveil the physical processes that led to the formation of two striking features surrounding the black holes at the centers of most galaxies: nuclear star clusters and nuclear stellar disks. Only in the last decade have such galactic structures been observed in the Milky Way and extragalactic systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-milky-simulation-reveals-central-galactic.html Astronomy Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news705248221 Narrow jets of luminous matter may be emitted toward Earth from the nuclei of active galaxies billions of light-years away. The galaxy then appears as a point source and is called a blazar. A Polish-German team of scientists has, for the first time, analyzed the activity of one such blazar over an extended period and, instead of finding answers, encountered an ever-increasing number of intriguing questions. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-decades-blazar-mysteries-piling.html Astronomy Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:00:05 EDT news705241262 Black holes are fascinating regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, even light, can escape them. The largest known black holes, called supermassive black holes, contain millions to billions of times the mass of the sun and are typically located at the centers of galaxies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-runaway-supermassive-black-hole-rbh.html Astronomy Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:20:03 EDT news705145331 Astronomers have speculated about the mysterious "little red dots" seen through the James Webb Space Telescope's images of the early universe: They could be galaxies, black holes, quasi-stars, starbursts ... or something else entirely. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-red-dots-pulsating-monster-stars.html Astronomy Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:40:01 EDT news705151083 Using observations from multiple powerful telescopes, a team of astronomers studied a red quasar nicknamed "the Hatchling" at redshift 3.7. They may have identified one of the clearest examples yet of a quasar caught in transition between a heavily obscured and fully exposed phase. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-astronomers-hatchling-quasar-dusty-cocoon.html Astronomy Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:20:04 EDT news705154659 Data released by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) marks a landmark expansion in the study of accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). As part of the fifth generation of the survey (SDSS-V), the Black Hole Mapper (BHM) program is providing unprecedented insights into the masses, growth and physics of quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGN) across cosmic time. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-monsters-unveils-sky-views-supermassive.html Astronomy Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:00:05 EDT news705061622 So far, almost all stellar-mass black holes detected by astronomers have been found in binary systems. However, astronomers have long suspected that these binary black holes are the exception and that, within the Milky Way, most exist on their own. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-simulations-hint-hidden-population-companionless.html Astronomy Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:20:07 EDT news704973799 The German eROSITA consortium (eROSITA-DE), which includes the University of Bonn and is led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), has released its second major public data set, the "eROSITA Data Release 2" (DR2). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-homing-ray-sky-erosita.html Astronomy Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:20:01 EDT news704722981 Black holes are often portrayed as cosmic gluttons that swallow everything that comes too close. But new observations of a dramatic black hole outburst—led by Warwick Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Noel Castro Segura—suggest the reality is much messier. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-hole-frenzy-lingering-cosmic.html Astronomy Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:40:05 EDT news704639281 A new study in Nature Communications has established a link between the Riemann Hypothesis and dynamical phase transitions in engineered quantum systems, demonstrating the effect on a quantum processor. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-physicists-link-riemann-hypothesis-phase.html General Physics Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:20:05 EDT news704628909 Since their discovery by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, little red dots (LRDs) have been the subject of great interest to astronomers. Understanding the nature of these extremely distant, compact red sources has been a puzzling scientific endeavor. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-red-dots-temporary-black-hole.html Astronomy Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:10:01 EDT news704551076 A team of researchers has discovered that winds generated by supermassive black holes are 100 times more powerful than previously thought, carrying energy across distances of approximately 300,000 light-years. The discovery demonstrates that these explosive winds affect the vast expanse of space beyond the galaxies they inhabit. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-hole-blast-years.html Astronomy Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:20:10 EDT news704534582 Gravitational waves are tiny ripples in the fabric of spacetime that are produced when massive objects in the cosmos accelerate or collide. By detecting these waves, astrophysicists can study various cosmic events, including black hole mergers, neutron star collisions and the early evolution of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-moon-thick-crust-amplify-elusive.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:03 EDT news704365472 Quasars, distant cores of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, are among the most luminous objects in the universe. While not uncommon, their brightness can make it difficult to accurately measure the galaxies they reside in. This means scientists must use gravitational lensing to assist in analyzing these bright objects, a method that relies on studying how an object's strong gravity bends light around its host galaxy. Yet despite their own powerful gravity, quasars that can act as lenses are rare. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quasar-lenses-emerge-ai-scan.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:20:07 EDT news704377501 A team of astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has observed an extremely rare "wandering" black hole located tens of thousands of light-years from the center of its galaxy. This finding could reshape scientists' understanding of how massive black holes move through the universe after galaxies collide. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-universe-rarest-black-hole.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:20:04 EDT news704376481 The fossilized spines of saber-toothed cats in the La Brea Tar Pits reveal evidence of an unexpectedly high prevalence of rare spinal nerve tumors, suggesting that the species became inbred just before extinction. These tumors, which cause significant pain and reduced limb function, could have made the cats particularly vulnerable to the lure of prey animals stuck in the tar pits. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-saber-toothed-cats-spinal-tumors.html Evolution Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:01 EDT news704106361 Chinese astronomers report the detection of a peculiar optical transient event that occurred in the center of a dwarf galaxy. The newly discovered event, designated AT2019ijn, is a fast-rising, slow-decaying blue optical transient with exceptionally bright radio emission. The finding was detailed in a paper published July 6 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-rare-blue-optical-transient-class.html Astronomy Sat, 25 Jul 2026 08:40:01 EDT news703824942 Physicists have discovered a surprisingly simple way to reproduce one of the most fascinating models in modern physics—linked to black holes, quantum chaos and exotic electronic materials—using ultracold atoms trapped in light. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-atoms-black-hole-quantum-chaos.html Quantum Physics Thu, 23 Jul 2026 10:20:03 EDT news704018690 Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured one of the clearest views yet of how an early supermassive black hole may grow within a network of young galaxies. The compact active galaxy, seen just a billion years after the Big Bang, lies beside a 12,000-parsec-long filament containing multiple galaxies that are expected to merge within a few hundred million years. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-jwst-captures-rare-glimpse-early.html Astronomy Thu, 23 Jul 2026 07:40:02 EDT news703843181 A black hole may be stirring a "pot" of gas containing a neighboring galaxy in the early universe, according to a new study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics that used observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The galaxy slowly being "cooked" is named MQN01 J004131.9-493704, but astronomers have nicknamed it the "red potato" because of its appearance in images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-hole-jet-gas-cloud.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 18:20:03 EDT news703863541 For decades, astronomers have cast galaxy mergers as the universe's ultimate relationship drama: two galaxies collide, chaos erupts, black holes awaken and star formation comes to a screeching halt. Upending this long-held belief, new research from Florida International University suggests most galaxies don't "die" in spectacular cosmic pileups after all. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-simulation-explanation-galaxies-stars.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:50:02 EDT news703867262 Stars and galaxies make up much of the universe's ordinary, observable matter. But for decades, scientists have wrestled with a cosmic conflict: There should be much more. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-radio-method-universe-ordinary.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:40:03 EDT news703854781 The first-ever image of a black hole—a glowing, ring-like structure at the heart of galaxy M87—was unveiled to the world in a landmark moment in 2019. Now, researchers have taken the next big step—moving beyond capturing a picture of the black hole to understanding its physics through dual-frequency images. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-dual-frequency-images-explore.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 11:40:04 EDT news703850679 One of the deepest ambitions in modern physics is understanding how the fabric of space and time could emerge from fundamental quantum degrees of freedom to establish a quantum theory of gravity. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-error-emergent-gravity-probing.html General Physics Tue, 21 Jul 2026 11:10:02 EDT news703850636 For the third time in 35 years, the black hole at the center of the galaxy IC 3599 has erupted, and this time, astronomers were watching it closely. IC 3599, a galaxy roughly 280 million light-years away, has flared this dramatically twice before, in 1990 and 2010, but both eruptions were only pieced together after they had faded. This is the first time researchers have watched one of these outbursts unfold in real time. The paper outlining its multiwavelength analysis was posted to the arXiv preprint server on July 10. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-recurring-black-hole-eruption.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:00:01 EDT news703772226 A new study led by astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin proposes a theory that could solve two astronomical riddles at once: the nature of Little Red Dots and the origin of globular clusters. Rather than representing distinct objects, the study suggests that one may instead be the ancestor of the other: Little Red Dots are, in fact, an early form of globular clusters. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-idea-cosmic-mysteries-linking-red.html Astronomy Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:40:01 EDT news703783802 A new study by Queen Mary University of London mathematician Professor Ginestra Bianconi proposes a new perspective on one of the deepest questions in modern physics: How can the universe become increasingly structured and complex while still obeying the second law of thermodynamics? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gravity-entropy-theory-law-thermodynamics.html General Physics Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:00:01 EDT news703512912 In a single experiment, physicists have measured the "excess" emission of high-energy gamma rays from more than a dozen heavy, unstable atomic nuclei. Mapping the gamma-ray emissions of so many isotopes produced in nuclear fission marks an important step toward a better understanding of one of the key phenomena in modern nuclear physics: the fission process itself. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-fission-excess-gamma-rays-dozen.html General Physics Thu, 16 Jul 2026 17:40:01 EDT news703427417 Listening to the "ringing" produced by black holes after they collide and merge could allow scientists to test Einstein's theory of general relativity under the most extreme conditions in the universe while unlocking the secrets of these mysterious objects. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-holes-future-gravitational-astronomy.html Astronomy Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:10:01 EDT news703407340 On July 16, 2024, a daytime meteor shook New York City with a sonic boom as it passed just south of the Statue of Liberty. Now, an international team of researchers reports in the journal Science Advances that a short time later, a meteorite weighing more than 2 pounds crashed through the roof of a house in the town of Hillsborough, New Jersey. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-alien-world-chemistry-meteorite-struck.html Space Exploration Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:00:03 EDT news703263418