Astronomers recently observed the largest cosmic explosion ever seen, far brighter than a supernova and lasting for much longer too. They believe that the outpouring of light is due to a supermassive black hole devouring a large cloud of gas. Some of the brightest events seen in the sky are supernovae, which are huge explosions…
This week is black hole week, and NASA is celebrating by sharing some stunning visualizations of black holes, including a frankly disturbing visualization to help you picture just how large a supermassive black hole is. Supermassive black holes are found at the center of galaxies (including our own) and generally speaking, the bigger the galaxy,…
The world watched in delight when scientists revealed the first-ever image of a black hole in 2019, showing the huge black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87. Now, that image has been refined and sharpened using machine learning techniques. The approach, called PRIMO or principal-component interferometric modeling, was developed by some of the…
Black holes might have a reputation as terrifying monsters, devouring all they come into contact with — but they can be a force of creation too, feeding the formation of new stars. Researchers using data from the Hubble Space Telescope recently spotted an unexpectedly huge trail of stars forming in the wake of a rogue…
A new detection method has been used to discover a small black hole outside the Milky Way, which could pave the way for the discovery of more hidden small black holes within our galaxy as well. Very large black holes are relatively easy to detect because they give off X-rays as the matter is heated…