Tag Archive for 'Supermassive black hole'

Less than a billion years after the Big Bang, a supermassive black hole began devouring anything within its gravitational grasp; this triggered a firestorm of star formation around the black hole; a galaxy was being born; a blowtorch of energy blazed across the Universe. Now, 12.8 billion years later, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured the beacon from this event. But the telescope needed help to spot it: the gravitational warping of space by a comparatively nearby intervening galaxy greatly amplified and distorted the quasar’s light, making it the brightest such object seen in the early Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers Find Brightest Quasar of Early Universe

Jan 10, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted the brightest quasar ever seen in the early Universe. Less than a billion years after...

This new image from Hubble shows an elliptical galaxy called Messier 105. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Sarazin et al.

Hubble Looks at Stunning Elliptical Galaxy Messier 105

Jan 8, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 105. This new image from Hubble shows an elliptical...

Large Magellanic Cloud on Collision Course with Milky Way Galaxy

Jan 7, 2019 by News Staff

The Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located approximately 163,000 light-years away, is on a collision course with the Milky Way with which it will...

An artist’s rendering of the corona around a black hole. Image credit: RIKEN.

Supermassive Black Holes Have Weaker Coronal Magnetic Field Than Expected

Dec 31, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Supermassive black holes that lurk at the center of most galaxies are surrounded by coronas — mysterious features that are sources of highly energetic...

This map of the entire sky shows the location of 739 blazars used in NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope’s measurement of the extragalactic background light. The background shows the sky as it appears in gamma rays with energies above 10 billion electron volts, constructed from nine years of observations by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope. The plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs along the middle of the plot. Image credit: NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration.

Astronomers Trace History of Universe’s Star Formation

Nov 30, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers believe that our Universe began forming the first stars when it was a few hundred million years old. Since then, the Universe has become a...

An artist’s impression of W2246-0526, the most luminous galaxy ever discovered. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Universe’s Most Luminous Galaxy Is Accreting Its Smaller Neighbors

Nov 19, 2018 by News Staff

WISE J224607.55-052634.9 (W2246-0526 for short), the most luminous galaxy ever discovered, is accreting (eating) at least three of its smaller neighbors,...

Images of four colliding galaxies, along with close-up views of their coalescing nuclei in the bright cores, are shown beneath the Hubble snapshots of NGC 6240. The left image of each pair, showing the merging galaxies, was taken by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). The right image, showing the bright cores, was taken in near-infrared light by the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, using adaptive optics to sharpen the view. The nuclei in each of the Hubble and Keck Observatory infrared photos are only about 3,000 light-years apart -- a near-embrace in cosmic terms. If there are pairs of black holes, they will likely merge within the next 10 million years to form a more massive black hole. These observations are part of the largest-ever survey of the cores of nearby galaxies using high-resolution images in near-infrared light taken by the Hubble and Keck observatories. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Koss, Eureka Scientific, Inc / W. M. Keck Observatory / Pan-STARRS.

Astronomers Find Supermassive Black Hole Pairs in Colliding Galaxies

Nov 9, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Michael Koss of Eureka Scientific Inc. has observed several pairs of galaxies in the final stages of merging together into...

Composite image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2597 showing the fountain-like flow of gas powered by the supermassive black hole in the central galaxy. The yellow is ALMA data of the cold gas. The red is data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope showing the hot hydrogen gas in the same region. The extend purple is the extended hot, ionized gas as imaged by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Tremblay et al / AUI / NSF / B. Saxton / NASA / Chandra / VLT.

Giant ‘Fountain’ of Cold Molecular Gas Offers Clues to How Galaxies Evolve

Nov 6, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) have observed a supermassive black hole acting like a ‘monumental fountain’...

This visualization uses data from simulations of orbital motions of gas swirling around at about 30% of the speed of light on a circular orbit around the supermassive black hole. Image credit: ESO / GRAVITY Collaboration / L. Calçada.

Astronomers Observe Interstellar Material Orbiting Close to Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Oct 31, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) have detected flares of infrared radiation coming from the...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5033. The image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). It is based on data obtained through two filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of NGC 5033

Oct 22, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a vivid image of the unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 5033. This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5033....

Gas glows brightly in this computer simulation of supermassive black holes only 40 orbits from merging. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Computer Simulation Sheds Light on Supermassive Black Hole Mergers

Oct 15, 2018 by News Staff

For the first time, a new computer simulation that incorporates the physical effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity shows that gas in supermassive...

This image shows the Seyfert galaxy PG1211+143. Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD / SDSS.

Astronomers Detect Matter Falling into Black Hole

Sep 25, 2018 by News Staff

University of Leicester’s Professor Ken Pounds and co-authors report the detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30% of the speed of light. This...

This image shows the newly-discovered galaxy cluster with the central giant elliptical galaxy, which harbors a supermassive black hole. Image credit: Taweewat Somboonpanyakul.

New Massive Galaxy Cluster Discovered

Aug 17, 2018 by News Staff

Dr. Michael McDonald of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and co-authors have uncovered a new massive cluster of galaxies hiding...

Einstein’s General Relativity Passes Black Hole Test

Jul 27, 2018 by News Staff

At the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lies the 4-million-solar-mass black hole named Sagittarius A*. This gravitational monster is surrounded by a group...

An artist’s impression of a blazar. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

Astronomers Pinpoint Source of High-Energy Neutrinos for First Time

Jul 13, 2018 by News Staff

A large multinational team of astronomers has found the first evidence of a source of super-energetic neutrino particles: a distant blazar — the...

An artist’s conception of PSO J352.4034-15.3373, with disk of material orbiting the black hole and jet of fast-moving particles ejected into space. Image credit: Robin Dienel / Carnegie Institution for Science.

Radio-Bright Quasar May Provide Clues about Physical Processes in Early Universe’s Galaxies

Jul 10, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) have found a quasar with the brightest radio emission ever observed in the early Universe. An...

An artist’s conception of a tidal disruption event in the merging galaxy pair Arp 299; background is the Hubble image of Arp 299. Image credit: Sophia Dagnello / NRAO / AUI / NSF / NASA / STScI.

Supermassive Black Hole Destroys Star, Launches Jet of Matter

Jun 15, 2018 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers has imaged the formation and expansion of a fast-moving jet of material ejected when the intense gravity of a supermassive...

This 3D spectro-imaging data cube was produced using software called OsrsVol, short for OSIRIS-Volume Display; Ciurlo et al developed this custom volume rendering tool to separate G3, G4, and G5 from the background emission; once the 3D analysis was performed, the astronomers could clearly distinguish the G-objects, which allowed them to follow their movement and see how they behave around the supermassive black hole. Image credit: Ciurlo et al.

Strange Star-Like Objects Spotted near Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Jun 13, 2018 by News Staff

Three new dusty stellar objects — so-called ‘G-type’ objects — have been spotted at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. This 3D spectro-imaging...

This celestial firestorm is the blazing wreckage of a collision between two spiral galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, which are located about 62 million light-years from Earth. The two galaxies, whose bright yellow cores appear to the lower left and upper right of center, began their fateful confrontation a few hundred million years ago. The pair is nicknamed the Antennae Galaxies because of two long streamers of stars, gas, and dust that extend from the crash site. Wide-field images reveal the elongated ‘antennae’ formed during the initial impact, but this Hubble image concentrates on the heart of the galactic collision. Image credit: NASA / ESA / B. Whitmore, STScI.

Violent Galaxy Collisions Better at Activating Black Holes than Peaceful Mergers, Say Astronomers

Jun 8, 2018 by News Staff

When two galaxies collide, their central supermassive black holes also smash together. But before they do, these galaxies often flicker on, absorbing huge...

This image from the VISTA Hemispheric Survey shows the ultra-luminous quasar SMSS J215728.21-360215.1 (center). Image credit: Wolf et al.

Scientists Find ‘Fastest-Growing’ Supermassive Black Hole Known in Universe

May 16, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A supermassive black hole in the center of the ultra-luminous quasar SMSS J215728.21-360215.1 (J2157-3602 for short) devours a mass equivalent to our Sun...

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