Supermassive black holes, millions to billions of times the mass of our Sun, are found at the centers of galaxies. Many of these galactic behemoths are hidden within a thick doughnut-shape ring of dust and gas known as a ...
Astronomy
Sep 15, 2016
31
1657
The European Space Agency's orbiting X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has proved the existence of a "gravitational vortex" around a black hole. The discovery, aided by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission, ...
Astronomy
Jul 12, 2016
37
1881
Roughly 90 percent of the biggest black holes in the known universe are dormant, meaning that they are not actively devouring matter and, consequently, not giving off any light or other radiation. But sometimes a star wanders ...
Astronomy
Jun 22, 2016
13
1112
Scientists may have found a link between the pulsations of light coming from a black hole accretion disk and the "breathing" of that disk.
Astronomy
Jun 21, 2016
0
140
At the center of a galaxy cluster, 1 billion light years from Earth, a voracious, supermassive black hole is preparing for a chilly feast.
Astronomy
Jun 8, 2016
58
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Blazars are galaxies whose central, supermassive black holes are accreting material from surrounding regions. Although black hole accretion happens in many galaxies and situations, in the case of a blazar the infalling material ...
Astronomy
Jun 6, 2016
1
57
An international team of astrophysicists, including Professor Phil Charles from the University of Southampton, have detected an intense wind from one of the closest known black holes to the Earth.
Astronomy
May 9, 2016
0
1791
Imagine you want to measure the size of a room, but it's completely dark. If you shout, you can tell if the space you're in is relatively big or small, depending on how long it takes to hear the echo after it bounces off ...
Astronomy
Apr 26, 2016
0
90
A recent observational campaign involving more than two dozen optical telescopes and NASA's space based SWIFT X-ray telescope allowed a team of astronomers to measure very accurately the rotational rate of one of the most ...
Astronomy
Mar 10, 2016
4
2100
The placid appearance of NGC 4889 can fool the unsuspecting observer. But the elliptical galaxy, pictured in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, harbours a dark secret. At its heart lurks one of the most ...
Astronomy
Feb 11, 2016
1
727
