Black holes can have a mass equivalent to that of millions of suns. Other, smaller, black holes can combine the mass of Mount Everest into the size of an atom.
While we can’t see inside a black hole, we can spot the intensely bright glowing disc that surrounds one. Now, we might better understand why these discs appear to ‘twinkle’.
The new study analysed data gathered at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia.
Shutterstock
To understand this question, we need to travel back in time.
When two neutron stars merge and create a black hole, they produce a powerful blast of gamma rays.
A. Simonnet (Sonoma State Univ.) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Gamma-ray bursts occur when a massive star explodes or when two neutron stars merge. A newly discovered burst has puzzled astronomers, as it lasted much longer than astronomers would have expected.
The James Webb Space Telescope is providing astronomers with images and data that reveal secrets from the earliest era of the universe.
NASA/STScI
It has been one year since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and six months since the first pictures were released. Astronomers are already learning unexpected things about the early universe.
A new particle accelerator at Michigan State University is set to discover thousands of never-before-seen isotopes.
Facility for Rare Isotope Beams
A new particle accelerator has just begun operation. It is the most powerful accelerator of its kind on Earth and will allow physicists to study some of the rarest matter in the universe.
Thousands of galaxies seen by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Nasa
The binary star WR140 is surrounded by an astonishing array of nested shells of dust swirling into space.
Solutions to Einstein’s famous equations back in the 20th century describe ‘wormholes,’ or tunnels through space-time.
Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via GettyImages
An astrophysicist explains what wormholes are and how these theoretical space-time tunnels have popped up in the solutions to a set of decadesold equations.
VFTS 243 is a binary system of a large, hot blue star and a black hole orbiting each other, as seen in this animation.
ESO/L.Calçada
Astronomers have discovered the first dormant black hole outside of the Milky Way. These black holes are not absorbing matter from a nearby star, making them incredibly hard to find.
NASA released five new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing incredible details of ancient galaxies, stars and the presence of water in the atmosphere of a distant planet.
The mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope is fully aligned and producing incredibly sharp images, like this test image of a star.
NASA/STScI via Flickr
It has taken eight months to test and calibrate all of the instruments and modes of the James Webb Space Telescope. A scientist on the team explains what it took to get Webb up and running.
Researchers used a radio telescope in New Mexico to study a particularly interesting fast radio burst.
Diana Robinson/Flickr
Astronomers studying fast radio bursts recently discovered one that repeats, has a persistent radio signal and originated in a galaxy much closer than it should have.
This image shows Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
EHT Collaboration
Sagittarius A* is a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Now that astronomers have imaged it, they can begin to learn more about black holes within other galaxies across the universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope was born from a previous decadal survey. What leaps forward will come from this one?
NASA Johnson/Flickr
The astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey for the 2020s lays out plans to search for life on distant planets, understand the formation of galaxies and solve deep mysteries of physics.