When the Universe erupted into existence with the Big Bang, all of its matter was compressed into a tiny area. Cosmologists theorize that in some regions, subatomic matter may have been so tightly packed that matter collapsed into primordial black holes. If these primordial black holes exist, they’re small, and they could be hiding among the population of free-floating planets.
Continue reading “Roman Could Finally Tell Us if Primordial Black Holes Exist”Next Generation Gravitational Wave Observatories Could Detect 100-600 Solar Mass Black Hole Mergers
Humans are born wonderers. We’re always wondering about the next valley over, the next horizon, what we’ll understand next about this vast Universe that we’re all wrapped up in.
In 2015, we finally detected our first long-awaited and long-theorized gravitational wave from the distant merger of two stellar mass black holes. But now we want to know more, and only better detectors can feed our appetite.
Continue reading “Next Generation Gravitational Wave Observatories Could Detect 100-600 Solar Mass Black Hole Mergers”The Milky Way's Black Hole is Spinning as Fast as it Can
Pick any object in the Universe, and it is probably spinning. Asteroids tumble end over end, planets and moons rotate on their axes, and even black holes spin. And for everything that spins, there is a maximum rate at which it can rotate. The black hole in our galaxy is spinning at nearly that maximum rate.
Continue reading “The Milky Way's Black Hole is Spinning as Fast as it Can”New Stars Forming Uncomfortably Close to the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
Astronomers examining a star cluster near Sgr A*, the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, found that the cluster has some unusually young members for its location. That’s difficult to explain since the region so close to the powerful black hole is infused with powerful radiation and dominated by the black hole’s extremely powerful gravitational force. According to our understanding of stellar formation, young stars shouldn’t be there.
Continue reading “New Stars Forming Uncomfortably Close to the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole”Here's What it Would Take to See a Black Hole's Photon Ring
Supermassive black holes are elusive creatures. Massive gravitational beasts that can power immensely bright quasars, or can lurk quietly among the bright stars of a galactic core. We mostly study them indirectly through their bright accretion disks or powerful jets of plasma they create, but we have been able to observe them more directly, such as our images of M87* and Sag A*. But what still eludes us is capturing a direct image of the enigmatic photon ring. A new work in Acta Astronautica proposes how this might be done.
Continue reading “Here's What it Would Take to See a Black Hole's Photon Ring”It's Confirmed. M87's Black Hole is Actually Spinning
Fifty-five million light-years away, in the galaxy known as M87, lies a supermassive black hole. It is a powerfully active black hole with a mass of 6.5 billion Suns, and in 2019 it was the first black hole to be imaged directly. The radio image captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) shows a halo of ambient light warped by the black hole’s gravity and directed our way. On one side of the halo, the light is brighter, which according to general relativity is due to the rotation or spin of the black hole. It was the first direct confirmation that the black hole rotates. A new study published in Nature has given us more rotational evidence.
Continue reading “It's Confirmed. M87's Black Hole is Actually Spinning”Gluttonous Black Holes Eat Faster Than Thought. Does That Explain Quasars?
At the heart of large galaxies like our Milky Way, there resides a supermassive black hole (SMBH.) These behemoths draw stars, gas, and dust toward them with their irresistible gravitational pull. When they consume this material, there’s a bright flare of energy, the brightest of which are quasars.
While astrophysicists think that SMBHs eat too slowly to cause a particular type of quasar, new research suggests otherwise.
Continue reading “Gluttonous Black Holes Eat Faster Than Thought. Does That Explain Quasars?”Strong Evidence that Supermassive Black Holes Affect Their Host Galaxy’s Chemistry
Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) are impossible to ignore. They can be billions of times more massive than the Sun, and when they’re actively consuming stars and gas, they become luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN.) A galaxy’s center is a busy place, with the activity centred on the SMBH.
New research provides strong evidence that while going about their business, SMBHs alter their host galaxy’s chemistry.
Continue reading “Strong Evidence that Supermassive Black Holes Affect Their Host Galaxy’s Chemistry”The Closest Black Holes to Earth are Probably Hidden in This Nearby Star Cluster
In the constellation Taurus, there is a cluster of a few hundred stars known as the Hyades. The cluster is just 150 light-years away, and it could be harboring a stellar-mass black hole.
Continue reading “The Closest Black Holes to Earth are Probably Hidden in This Nearby Star Cluster”A Black Hole Nibbles on a Star Every 22 Days, Slowly Consuming it
Astronomers working with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have spotted something unusual. The observatory’s X-Ray Telescope (XRT) has captured emissions from a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in a galaxy about 500 million light-years away. The black hole is repeatedly feeding on an unfortunate star that came too close.
Continue reading “A Black Hole Nibbles on a Star Every 22 Days, Slowly Consuming it”