Space Station Threshold

Obviously, today is the day for news on black holes. While one group of astronomers studied the violent flares of energy sent out by black holes in the near infrared and submillimeter wavelengths, another group used the Chandra X-Ray Observatory to see how black holes can pump energy in a gentler and rhythmic fashion, [...]

Two different telescopes simultaneously observed violent flares from the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. The outbursts from this region, known as Sagittarius A*, reveal material being stretched like bread dough out as it orbits in the intense gravity close to the central black hole. Using ESO's Very Large [...]

We're learning more about black holes and the early universe all the time, with the help of all the amazing ground-based telescopes astronomers now have at their disposal. Astronomers think that many - perhaps all - galaxies in the universe contain massive black holes at their centers. New observations with the Submillimeter Array now [...]

What is the environment around a black hole really like? Astronomers are getting a better idea by observing the light coming from the accretion disk surrounding black holes. The light is not constant — it flares, sputters and sparkles – and this flickering provides new and surprising insights into the colossal amount of energy [...]

As you know, we wanted to answer listener questions regularly, but we found it was taking away from the regular weekly episodes of Astronomy Cast. So we've decided to just split it up and run the question shows separately from the regular Astronomy Cast episodes. If this works out, you might be able to enjoy [...]

Sorry, couldn't resist that title. Astronomers studying black holes are able to "see" them due to the fact that the gas getting sucked in gets extremely hot and emits X-rays. These X-ray pulses are commonly seen among smaller black holes, but until now, had not been detected from super-massive black holes. But [...]

Black holes are thought to exist throughout the universe, with the largest and most massive found at the centers of the largest galaxies. These supermassive black holes have been shown to have masses upwards of one billion times that of our own Sun. But an astronomer studying black holes says there's an upper limit [...]

An international team of astronomers has obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The astronomers linked together radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California to create a virtual telescope more than 2,800 miles across that is capable of [...]

Black holes are sometimes huge – supermassive as they are called, billions of times the mass of our sun. Other times they are petite with just a few times the sun's mass. But do black holes also come in size medium? A new study suggests that, most likely, the answer is no. Astronomers have [...]

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 [...]