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23 July 2008
New "Sunglasses" Help Astronomers See Light Near Black Holes
Although we can't actually see a black hole, we can see the black hole's effect on nearby matter. But even that is difficult because infrared light from clouds of dust and gas usually pollutes the view. But astronomers have found a way to get a clean view of the disks surrounding black [...]
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19 July 2008
How do you Weigh a Supermassive Black Hole? Take its Temperature
Working out the mass of huge black holes, like the ones hiding in the centre of galactic nuclei, is no easy task and attempts are being made to find novel ways to weigh them. Using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, two scientists have confirmed a theory they conceived ten years ago, that the supermassive [...]
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18 June 2008
Supermassive Black Holes are Not Fussy Eaters
By combining observations from a multitude of observatories, all looking at spiral galaxy M81, astronomers have taken a very close and intimate look at a supermassive black hole's feeding habits. As supermassive black holes (of tens of millions of solar masses) and stellar black holes (of a few solar masses) exist in entirely different environments, [...]
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09 June 2008
Can Light be "Squeezed" to Improve Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detectors?
The search is on to detect the first evidence of gravitational waves travelling around the cosmos. How can we do this? The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) uses a system of laser beams fired over a distance of 4 km (2.5 miles) and reflected back and forth by a system of mirrors. Should a gravitational [...]
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02 June 2008
Double Your Science: Starburst Galaxies Found with Active Quasars
Astronomers now know that essentially every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. When the black hole is actively feeding on material, the surrounding region can blaze brightly - this is a quasar, aka an active galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope has been used to image a set of exotic active galaxies, known [...]
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15 May 2008
How to Escape From a Black Hole
According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, black holes are regions of space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. And in the 1970's physicist Stephen Hawking asserted that any information sucked inside a black hole would be permanently lost. But now, researchers at Penn State have shown that [...]
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14 May 2008
Looking for Black Holes in … Water?
Looking for Hawking Radiation in space is likely impossible with our current technology. But scientists here on Earth recently used flowing water to simulate a black hole and create event horizons, testing Stephen Hawking's famous prediction that the event horizon creates particles and anti-particles. (...)Read the rest of Looking for Black Holes in … Water? [...]
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08 May 2008
Stars Orbiting Close to Black Holes Flattened like Hot Pancakes
Playing with black holes is a risky business, especially for a star that is unlucky enough to be orbiting one. Assuming an unfortunate star hasn't already had all of its hydrogen fuel and other component elements stripped from its surface, the powerful tidal forces will have some fun with the doomed stellar body. First the [...]
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29 April 2008
Supermassive Black Hole Kicked Out of Galaxy: First Ever Observation
For the first time, the most extreme collision to occur in the cosmos has been observed. Galaxies are known to hide supermassive black holes in their cores, and should the galaxies collide, tidal forces will cause massive disruption to the stars orbiting around the galactic cores. If the cores are massive enough, the supermassive black [...]
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24 April 2008
Magnetic Fields Shape the Jets Pouring Out of Supermassive Black Holes
The cores of galaxies contain supermassive black holes, containing hundreds of millions of times the mass of Sun. As matter falls in, it chokes up, forming a super hot accretion disk around the black hole. From this extreme environment, the black hole-powered region spews out powerful jets of particles moving at the speed of light. [...]
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21 April 2008
Light Echo from X-Ray Flare Reveals Existence of a Molecular Torus Surrounding a Supermassive Black Hole
The light echo of an X-ray flare from the nucleus of a galaxy has been observed. The flare almost certainly originates from a single star being gravitationally ripped apart by a supermassive black hole in the galactic core. As the star was being pulled into the black hole, its material was injected into the black [...]
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15 April 2008
Milky Way's Black Hole Gave Off a Burst 300 Years Ago
Our Milky Way's black hole is quiet - too quiet - some astronomers might say. But according to a team of Japanese astronomers, the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy might be just as active as those in other galaxies, it's just taking a little break. Their evidence? The echoes from a [...]
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09 April 2008
What Happens When Three Black Holes Collide?
The consequences of two black holes colliding may be huge, the energy produced by such a collision could even be detected by observatories here on Earth. Ripples in space-time will wash over the Universe as gravitational waves and are predicted to be detected as they pass through the Solar System. Taking this idea one step [...]
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04 April 2008
Star Formation Extinguished by Quasars
According to new research, a galaxy with a quasar in the middle is not a good place to grow up. As active galactic nuclei (AGN) evolve, they pass through a "quasar phase", where the accretion disk surrounding the central black hole blasts intense radiation into space. The quasar far outshines the entire host galaxy. After [...]
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02 April 2008
A Black Hole Observed in the Heart of Mysterious Omega Centauri
Omega Centauri is a strange thing. It's been classified as a star, then a nebula, then a globular cluster and now it's thought to be a dwarf galaxy missing its outer stars. Why is it in such a mess? How can this oddball galaxy be explained? New research suggests it has an intermediate-black hole living [...]
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