The beautiful spiral galaxy visible in the center of the image is known as RX J1140.1+0307, a galaxy in the Virgo constellation imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and it presents an interesting puzzle. At first ...
Astronomy
Jan 13, 2017
8
246
If two galaxies collide, the merging of their central black holes triggers gravitational waves, which ripple throughout space. An international research team involving the University of Zurich has now calculated that this ...
Astronomy
Sep 5, 2016
4
1976
The center of the Milky Way galaxy is currently a quiet place where a supermassive black hole slumbers, only occasionally slurping small sips of hydrogen gas. But it wasn't always this way. A new study shows that 6 million ...
Astronomy
Aug 29, 2016
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253
Are massive black holes hiding in the halos of galaxies, making up the majority of the universe's mysterious dark matter? This possibility may have been ruled out by a star cluster in a small galaxy recently discovered orbiting ...
Astronomy
Aug 10, 2016
0
91
First postulated more than 230 years ago, black holes have been extensively researched, frequently depicted, even featured in sci-fi films.
Astronomy
Jun 16, 2016
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The center of our Milky Way galaxy lies about 27,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius. At its core is a black hole about four million solar masses in size. Around the black hole is a donut-shaped ...
Astronomy
Feb 29, 2016
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133
Einstein was right – changes in gravity do spread as waves through space. The LIGO experiment detected such waves from a collision between two black holes with masses of about 36 and 29 times that of the sun (described ...
Astronomy
Feb 18, 2016
21
270
Most galaxies possess a majestic spiral or elliptical structure. About a quarter of galaxies, though, defy such conventional, rounded aesthetics, instead sporting a messy, indefinable shape. Known as irregular galaxies, this ...
Astronomy
Jan 25, 2016
0
970
Astronomers using the Nobeyama 45-m Radio Telescope have detected signs of an invisible black hole with a mass of 100 thousand times the mass of the Sun around the center of the Milky Way. The team assumes that this possible ...
Astronomy
Jan 15, 2016
11
1475
Black holes at the heart of galaxies could swell to 50 billion times the mass of the sun before losing the discs of gas they rely on to sustain themselves, according to research at the University of Leicester.
Astronomy
Dec 18, 2015
105
3040
