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February 11, 2008December 26, 2015

“Listening” for Gravitational Waves to Track Down Black Holes

Gravitational waves are predicted by Einstein’s 1916 general theory of relativity, but they are notoriously hard to detect and it’s taken many decades to come close to observing them. Now, with the help of a supercomputer named SUGAR (Syracuse University Gravitational and Relativity Cluster), two years of data collected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory …

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January 21, 2008December 26, 2015

Forget Black Holes, How Do You Find A Wormhole?

Finding a black hole is an easy task… compared with searching for a wormhole. Suspected black holes have a massive gravitational effect on planets, stars and even galaxies, generating radiation, producing jets and accretion disks. Black holes will even bend light through gravitational lensing. Now, try finding a wormhole… Any ideas? Well, a Russian researcher …

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January 10, 2008December 26, 2015

Death Echos of Material Destroyed Near a Black Hole

Greedy black holes can only consume so much material. The leftover matter backs up into an accretion disk surrounding the black hole. The pull of the black hole is so strong that flashes of radiation emitted from this accretion disk might need to make several orbits around the black hole before it can actually escape …

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May 28, 2007December 26, 2015

What’s Up this Week: May 28 – June 3, 2007

Monday, May 28 – On this day in 1959, the first primates made it to space. Abel (a rhesus monkey) and Baker (a squirrel monkey) lifted off in the nose cone of an Army Jupiter missile and were carried to sub-orbital flight. Recovered unharmed, Abel died just three days later from anesthesia during an electrode …

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November 20, 2006December 8, 2022

Black Hole Spins Nearly 1000 Times a Second

Black holes bend our understanding of the Universe and laws of physics. But astronomers have discovered a black hole spinning so quickly, it breaks all the speed laws for rotation. The stellar mass black hole in question is known as GRS1915+105, and it’s spinning more than 950 times every second. As the black hole spins, …

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November 9, 2006March 3, 2023

Astrophoto: M83 by R. Jay GaBany

Our understanding of the Universe is written in pencil on the pages of a loose-leaf notebook because, like many of the sciences, our knowledge of nature is constantly undergoing revision. For example, during the past few years a quiet revolution has been taking place regarding galaxies, black holes and their increasingly understood symbiotic relationship. Black …

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August 25, 2006January 24, 2021

Fine Tuning the Search for Black Holes

Although black holes can’t be seen directly, they’re relatively easy to find. Matter spiraling into a black hole becomes superheated, shines brightly, and is visible across the Universe. A new supercomputer simulation has fine tuned the energy calculations for atoms in the vicinity of a black hole. This is very important, because astronomers working on …

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August 4, 2006

Brown Dwarf Lived Inside Another Star

ESO’s Very Large Telescope has uncovered an interesting stellar pair: a hot white dwarf and a brown dwarf orbiting each other every two hours. In the past, the heavier star was actually a bloated red giant, and the brown dwarf orbited inside its envelope. The friction of moving through the red giant caused the brown …

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May 30, 2006December 19, 2015

Finding a Fourth Dimension

Braneworld challenges Einstein’s general relativity. Image credit: NASA. Click to enlarge Scientists have been intrigued for years about the possibility that there are additional dimensions beyond the three we humans can understand. Now researchers from Duke and Rutgers universities think there’s a way to test for five-dimensional theory (4 spatial dimensions plus time) of gravity …

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May 29, 2006March 24, 2012

What’s Up This Week – May 29 – June 4, 2006

M83: “The Southern Pinwheel”. Image credit: Bill Schoening/NOAO/AURA/NSF. Click to enlarge. Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Let’s hope clear skies have returned to your area as we begin the week with a look at the incredible M83. As the Moon returns, we’ll study the features and be in for some excitement as it occults asteroid Vesta. Stay …

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