Previously dormant supermassive black hole Ansky in galaxy SDSS1335+0728, approximately 300 million light-years away in Virgo, started emitting exceptional X-ray flares in late 2019. These quasiperiodic eruptions last 10 times longer, shine 10 times brighter, and release 100 times more energy than typical black hole bursts. ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA telescopes have recorded 165 such events since February 2024.
Astronomers on the hunt for an intermediate-mass black hole at the heart of the globular cluster NGC 6397, found something they weren’t expecting — a concentration of smaller black holes lurking there instead of one massive black hole. Image credits: NASA,…
Astrophysicists at Tohoku University in Japan have suggested a new theory for the origin of supermassive black holes using large computer simulations. The theory helps to further explain the massive number of black holes currently observed. Nearly every galaxy in…
In an interview with Wal Thornhill, Chief Science Advisor of The Thunderbolts Project, we explore a number of intriguing space science discoveries, including supernovae, "neutron stars," "black holes" and "white dwarf" stars which…
For the first time ever, astronomers at The University of New Mexico say they've been able to observe and measure the orbital motion between two supermassive black holes hundreds of millions of light years from Earth – a discovery more than a decade in the…
A team of scientists from the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape in South Africa have discovered that supermassive black holes in the distant universe are spinning out radio jets in the same direction. This is the first time researchers found…
Gravitational waves, the ripples in the spacetime fabric, were observed for the first time, the scientists confirmed on February 11, 2016. The waves resulted from a cataclysmic event of two black holes merging in the distant universe. Their existence, first…
A team of astrophysics led by a Johns Hopkins University (JHU) scientist has for the first time witnessed a black hole swallowing a star and ejecting a flare of matter moving nearly the speed of light (about 300,000 km/s). The finding tracks the star, which is…
Black holes have always been one of the most mysterious and awe inspiring objects in space. Astronomers have known for some time that black holes periodically emit very powerful flares into space. New observations from NASA's Explorer missions Swift and the…
For many people, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity lies hidden behind an impenetrable wall of complicated mathematics, superposed upon the widespread misconception that only those smarter than the average bear, with a penchant for doing long sums, can…
