Supermassive black holes are giants millions to billions of times more massive than our Sun that reside at the centers of most galaxies in our universe, including our own. Milky Way — and they are best known for the brilliant disks of gas that swirl around them. These disks are the remains of ill-fated stars … Read more
A bright quasar, powered by a supermassive black hole, emits radiation that pushes clouds of gas away from its surroundings, generating winds at speeds of about 58 million kilometers per hour. Oh, and the quasar is also almost as old as the universe itself. The discovery, made by a team of scientists led by astronomers … Read more
A bright quasar, powered by a supermassive black hole, emits radiation that pushes clouds of gas away from its surroundings, generating winds at speeds of about 58 million kilometers per hour. Oh, and the quasar is also almost as old as the universe itself. The discovery, made by a team of scientists led by astronomers … Read more
Astronomers are witnessing a never-before-seen spectacle in the cosmos: the awakening of a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy. In late 2019, a team of astronomers took note of an otherwise unremarkable galaxy called SDSS1335+0728, located 300 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. A sudden spike in the galaxy’s brightness … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. CNN — Astronomers are witnessing a never-before-seen spectacle in the cosmos: the awakening of a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy. End of 2019 a team of astronomers have noted an … Read more
M. Kornmesser/ESO An artist’s illustration shows a massive black hole awakening at the center of a distant galaxy. The black hole pulls in a growing disk of material as it feeds on surrounding gas, making the galaxy brighter. Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific … Read more
Researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) have made groundbreaking discoveries about the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Using ten years of X-ray data from NASA’s NuSTAR telescopethese findings provide new insights into the enigmatic environment surrounding this colossal cosmic entity. Discover hidden flares and … Read more
This article was reviewed according to Science fact checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread OK! Multiwavelength finding plot of the innermost ≈0.4 pc. of the galactic center observed in the K-band (red) and L-band (blue), observed with NACO (VLT). Credit: Astronomy and astrophysics (2024). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202449729 × close to Multiwavelength finding plot of the innermost … Read more
Astronomers have spotted bursts and echoes coming from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). These ‘cosmic fireworks’ and X-ray echoes could help scientists better understand the dark and silent cosmic titan that our Milky Way orbits. The team of researchers from Michigan State University made the … Read more
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have for the first time ever mapped the plasma burps of a feeding black hole-powered quasar relatively close to Earth. Although supermassive black holes with masses millions or billions of times greater than the Sun are thought to live at the heart of all galaxies, not all of these … Read more