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 There's a nice kind of irony buried in this story: One of the most sensitive instruments ever built, capable of measuring distortions smaller than the width of a proton, has been quietly held back by something as mundane as heat. And the fix, it turns out, is not some exotic new sensor but a thermal camera you could genuinely buy off the shelf. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-thermal-camera-ligo.html Astronomy Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:20:01 EDT news704621648 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 In this July 6, 2026, image, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveals the nearby galaxy Centaurus A, exposing the dusty structures and hidden activity that shape this unusual system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-image-starburst-galaxy-centaurus.html Astronomy Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:20:04 EDT news704633740 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 The infrared-sensitive James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has conducted multiple surveys of the very distant universe, digging into what was happening in the first billion years after the Big Bang. As part of these deep surveys, its sensors have been picking up mysterious objects dubbed "Little Red Dots." It has found more than 300 of them since their discovery in 2024. These intriguing little objects look like their name: distant, small objects that appear red in JWST observations. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-distant-primordial-newborn-red-dot.html Astronomy Wed, 29 Jul 2026 08:00:03 EDT news704524262 Scientists have reacted with alarm to news that the British government will cut funding to the world-famous radio telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwest England that has been helping explore the cosmos for almost 70 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-future-uk-renowned-lovell-radio.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:40:11 EDT news704464092 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 Black holes represent some of the most extreme environments in the universe. They are the sources of the strongest gravitational fields, allowing us to test Einstein's theory of general relativity to an extent impossible with small objects. But we are also reaching the limit of what we can learn about one remotely. So, various authors have put forward ideas for how we might eventually send a probe directly to a black hole to observe it up close. One of the most vocal of those authors is Cosimo Bambi of Fudan University in Shanghai—and he recently released a paper, available as a preprint on arXiv, about what it would take to send a gram-sized probe to a nearby black hole. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spacecraft-black-hole.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Jul 2026 08:20:04 EDT news704355842 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 Imagine holding one of our most precise quantum devices at a fixed position outside a black hole. A Josephson junction—two superconductors separated by an ultrathin barrier—can turn a voltage into a quantum oscillation with extraordinary precision. Would intense gravity change that quantum rule, or only change how a faraway observer reads the device? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-hole-gravity-quantum-circuit.html General Physics Sun, 26 Jul 2026 19:00:01 EDT news704113655 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