A Mystery about the Universe’s First Black Holes May Be Solved at Last
Astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan predicted that black holes can form without the help of stars. New observations support her theory
A Mystery about the Universe’s First Black Holes May Be Solved at Last
Astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan predicted that black holes can form without the help of stars. New observations support her theory
We’ve Finally Seen Matter Plunge into a Black Hole
For the first time, scientists observed matter’s free fall into a black hole’s “plunging region”
How Can You ‘See’ a Black Hole?
How do astronomers find the darkest objects in the universe?
Collapsing Sheets of Spacetime Could Explain Dark Matter and Why the Universe ‘Hums’
Domain walls, long a divisive topic in physics, may be ideal explanations for some bizarre cosmic quirks
Astronomers Discover Milky Way's 'Sleeping Giant' Black Hole Shockingly Close to Earth
A black hole weighing as much as 33 suns lurks a mere 2,000 light-years away from our solar system
Our Galaxy’s Biggest Black Hole Just Got a New Close-up. What’s Next Could Be Even Wilder
As the Event Horizon Telescope pursues ambitious upgrades, the project’s latest results reveal the magnetic fields around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole
First-Ever Magnetic Map of Milky Way’s Black Hole Reveals a Mystery
Polarized light from Sagittarius A*, our galaxy’s supermassive black hole, shows swirling magnetic fields that may hint at the presence of an unseen jet
The Brightest Quasar Ever Seen Eats a ‘Sun’ Every Day
The quasar, as bright as 500 trillion suns, has evaded astronomers for over 40 years because of its incredible luminosity
Space Lasers Will Seek a New Kind of Gravitational Waves
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will open a new era in astronomy that brings scientists to the brink of studying gravitational waves from the beginning of time
This Record-Breaking Black Hole Could Help Solve a Cosmic Mystery
The earliest active supermassive black hole ever seen offers clues on how these enigmatic objects first formed
Supermassive Black Hole Feeding Frenzies May Explain Blinking Quasars
A new simulation shows black holes ripping apart and consuming their accretion disk in a matter of months, which may explain why some quasars quickly brighten and dim
Bizarre Quantum Theory Explains Why Your Coffee Takes So Long to Drip through a Narrow Filter
Physicist John Cardy and his colleague just won the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. We spoke with Cardy about conformal field theory, 2D black holes and coffee filters