Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 16, 2023

Monster black holes could be the source of dark energy driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, study suggests

Supermassive black holes could be the engines driving the expansion of the universe, according to research that proposes a solution to one of the biggest problems in cosmology. By comparing supermassive black holes across nine billion years of cosmic history, astronomers have discovered a clue that the ravenous behemoths lurking...

Feb 17, 2023

Cosmic 'tadpole' points to ultra-rare black hole hiding near the Milky Way's center

An enormous, deformed dust cloud that astronomers nicknamed the Tadpole could point to the location of an extremely rare type of black hole never confirmed to exist in our galaxy before. In a study published Jan. 10 in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers based in Japan describe the strange dust cloud,...

Feb 24, 2023

Rare black hole 1 billion times the mass of the sun could upend our understanding of galaxy formation

A rare supermassive black hole found hiding at the dawn of the universe could indicate that there were thousands more of the ravenous monsters stalking the early cosmos than scientists thought — and astronomers aren't sure why. The primordial black hole is around 1 billion times the mass of our...

Feb 25, 2023

Wormholes might bend light like black holes do — and that could be the key to finding them

If wormholes exist, they could magnify the light of distant objects by up to 100,000 times — and that could be the key to finding them, according to research published Jan. 19 in the journal Physical Review D. Wormholes are theoretical funnel-shaped portals through which matter (or perhaps spacecraft) could...

Mar 3, 2023

A mysterious object is being sucked into our galaxy's black hole. Now, we may know what it is.

A mysterious object that has been slowly drifting toward the center of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole could be the exploded remnants of two colliding stars, a new study suggests. The strange blob, named X7, has a mass of around 50 Earths and is moving at speeds of up...

Mar 10, 2023

Monster black hole may have killed this galaxy's star-forming power, James Webb Telescope reveals

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted the earliest known galaxy to ever be quenched — suddenly and mysteriously halting its star formation — and scientists think the supermassive black hole in its center could be to blame. The galaxy, called GS-9209, formed most of its stars during a hyperactive...

Mar 10, 2023

Rare galaxy with three black holes leads astronomers to the most massive objects in the universe

Glimpsed only occasionally at the hearts of massive clusters of galaxies, ultramassive black holes are some of the largest and most elusive objects in the universe. These black hole behemoths have masses exceeding that of 10 billion suns, making them far more monstrous than even the supermassive black holes found...

Mar 16, 2023

2 pairs of gigantic runaway black holes spotted on collision course, and they're bringing four entire galaxies with them

Two pairs of gigantic black holes, each in a different dwarf galaxy, are speeding towards each other, and they're set for two separate, never-before-seen collisions. Astronomers used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to spot the four dwarf galaxy black holes racing towards each other, dragging an enormous train of gas and...

Mar 23, 2023

What's the biggest black hole in the universe?

Black holes are some of the most massive single objects in space, but what's the biggest one in existence, and how big can they get? It turns out that there is a theoretical limit to the size of black holes — celestial objects so massive that even light cannot escape...

Mar 24, 2023

Black holes may be swallowing invisible matter that slows the movement of stars

For the first time, scientists may have discovered indirect evidence that large amounts of invisible dark matter surround black holes. The discovery, if confirmed, could represent a major breakthrough in dark matter research. Dark matter makes up around 85% of all matter in the universe, but it is almost completely...

Mar 28, 2023

Gargantuan black hole 30 billion times the mass of the sun is one of the largest ever discovered

Astronomers have discovered one of the largest black holes ever found — an ultramassive monster roughly 30 billion times the mass of the sun — using a space-time trick predicted by Albert Einstein. The colossal black hole, which lurks 2.7 billion light-years from Earth in the brightest galaxy of the...

Mar 29, 2023

Object mistaken as a galaxy is actually a black hole pointed directly at Earth

In a distant galaxy, a supermassive black hole spewing radiation at near light speed has shifted its angle by a whopping 90 degrees to point directly toward Earth — a sharp turn that's puzzling physicists. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the hungry black holes at the cores of many other...

Mar 30, 2023

Stephen Hawking's famous black hole paradox may finally have a solution

One of physicist Stephen Hawking's most famous paradoxes may finally be solved: Black holes may in fact hang onto information about the massive stars that created them, new research indicates. This information may lurk in the radiation around black holes – colloquially known as “quantum hair” – and could, in...

Apr 3, 2023

New type of black hole found lurking in Earth's 'cosmic backyard' is closest ever discovered

Two recently discovered black holes are remarkably close to Earth — and they may represent a previously unknown category of the mysterious, massive objects. An international team of astronomers discovered the black holes using data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia mission combined with a bevy of ground-based telescopes...

Apr 5, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope discovers oldest black hole in the universe — a cosmic monster 10 million times heavier than the sun

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted the earliest known black hole in the universe, and astronomers think even earlier ones could have swarmed the young cosmos. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), whose powerful cameras allow it to peer back in time to the earliest stages of the universe,...