Credit: Depositphotos Estimating the quantity of black holes poses a challenge due to their indirect detectability. Nonetheless, astronomers are diligently working to ascertain the count of black holes in space. Before addressing the question, "How Many Black Holes Are There?" it's crucial to note three types: stellar, intermediate, and supermassive. Each type displays distinct properties...
Black hole. Credit: Unsplash. Joseph Simon, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, employed computer simulations to make predictions about the masses of the largest supermassive black holes existing in the universe. In a press statement, Simon highlighted the substantial mass of the black hole situated...
This artist’s impression depicts a star being torn apart by an intermediate-mass black hole, surrounded by an accretion disk. Image credit: Hubble / NASA / ESA / M. Kornmesser. According to space experts, there is a possibility of the existence of intermediate-mass black holes. These are black holes that can consume some of the stray...
This system consists of a pair of galaxies, dubbed IC 694 and NGC 3690, which made a close pass some 700 million years ago. As a result of this interaction, the system underwent a fierce burst of star formation. In the last fifteen years or so six supernovae have popped off in the outer...
Two interacting galaxies viewed from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team A research study led by the College of Southampton has shown how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are feeding off gas clouds that reach them by traveling hundreds of thousands of light yrs from one galaxy to another. A worldwide team of scientists has...
This artist's conception shows a late-stage galaxy merger and its two newly-discovered central black holes. The binary black holes are the closest together ever observed in multiple wavelengths. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); M. Weiss, NRAO/AUI/NSF Astronomers have found two ghostly Goliaths en route to a catastrophic meeting. The newly found pair of supermassive black holes are...
Mehau Kulyk / Science Source The solutions to Einstein's formulas that describe a spinning black holes will not explode, even when poked or prodded. In 1963, the mathematician Roy Kerr discovered a solution to Einstein's formulas that precisely described the space-time outside what we currently call a rotating black hole. (The term wouldn't be created for...
Credit: Pixabay A Unique Discovery in Cygnus Constellation In the constellation Cygnus, about 7,800 light-years from Earth, lies a true cosmic oddity: the V404 Cygni system, home to a black hole known for its intriguing and unpredictable behavior. Recently, this system revealed yet another surprise to scientists—a hidden binary companion, a star in a wide orbit...
An artist's impression of a star circling a supermassive black hole, a repeating event that seems to be at the core of AT2018fykNASA/CXC/M. Weiss Astronomers have observed a supermassive black hole consume a star in two phases and have predicted when it might take a third. If it happens, it could create a fascinating cosmic...
A supermassive black hole in galaxy SDSS1335+0728 has lit up, possibly giving astronomers a look at how such beasts are awakened.M. KORNMESSER/ESO For the last four years, astronomers have observed the supermassive black hole at the center of SDSS1335+0728 undergo a transformation from a dim and inactive state to a bright and active one. This...
