supermassive black hole

Latest about supermassive black hole

An artist's impression of a cool ring of hydrogen gas that circles around our supermassive black hole.

Scientists Take First-Ever Image of a Faint Swirling Ring of Hydrogen Around Our Galaxy's Black Hole

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

This cool cloud dances around the giant cosmic beast.

Black Holes
A NASA image shows the M87 galaxy, in the middle of which is the black hole that was imaged for the first time earlier this month (bottom-most box). The top zoomed-in box shows the shockwaves caused by jets of plasma spewed out from the black hole.

Black Hole Spits Out High-Energy Jets at Near Light-Speed

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

Black holes gobble up most matter around them, but some of it escapes, spewing nearly-light-speed jets of material.

Black Holes
sagittarius a chimneys

These Two Cosmic 'Chimneys' Could Be Fueling the Galaxy-Sized Bubbles Looming Over the Milky Way

By Brandon Specktor published

Scientists made an X-ray map of the center of the galaxy — and they found two chimneys of plasma.

Cosmology
ngc 3079 galaxy space bubbles

A Pair of Gargantuan Space Bubbles Might Be Spitting Cosmic Rays at Earth

By Brandon Specktor published

Everybody loves blowing bubbles — even galaxies!

Cosmology
Supermassive Black Hole's Spin Rate Clocked

A Dying Star Sent Out an SOS Pointing to Its Killer: A Buzz-Saw Black Hole

By Rafi Letzter published

The crumbs left over from a supermassive black hole's recent meal have allowed scientists to calculate the monster's rotation rate, and the results are mind-boggling.

Black Holes
A star changes color as it circles around a black hole on a starry blackness.

Star Zooms Past Monster Black Hole, Confirms Relativity

By Chelsea Gohd published

Black Holes
Gargantua Black Hole in 'Interstellar' Image

1 Million Habitable Planets Could (Theoretically) Orbit a Black Hole. Here's How

By Charles Q. Choi published

A black hole could have 1 million planets orbiting near it that are potentially capable of supporting life as we know it, an astrophysicist suggests.

Black Holes
An illustration shows jets of matter launched from a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy.

The Universe's Fastest-Growing Black Hole Eats Suns Like Ours for Breakfast

By Brandon Specktor published

The fastest growing black hole in the known universe eats a mass the size of the sun every two days.

Black Holes
360-degree Milky Way visualization scene

Wild 360-Degree Video Lets You See the Milky Way As a Giant Black Hole Would

By Doris Elin Salazar published

A new 360-degree simulation that uses data from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory is helping astronomers better understand more than 22 stellar giants found at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Black Holes
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected the five most distant gamma-ray blazars ever (their locations are seen here in a NASA video still). The light from the blazars dates back to when the universe was between 1.9 and 1.4 billion years old.

These Powerful Blazars Are the Most Distant Ever Seen

By Sarah Lewin published

Monster black holes shooting jets of gamma-ray radiation right at us have been spotted farther away than ever before, dating back to when the universe was nearly one-tenth its current age.

Astronomy
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