Smadar Naoz, University of California, Los Angeles
There is a massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Measurements of star orbits near this black hole suggest that there may be a second companion black hole nearby.
Conical jets of radiation burst from the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
Joss Bland-Hawthorn
New research shows the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way spat out an enormous beam of radiation 3.5 million years ago
Another reason you don’t want to get too close to a black hole is because of something we call ‘spaghettification’. If this happened to Earth it would be… unpleasant.
Shutterstock
If you got too close to a black hole, it would suck you in and you’d never be able to escape, even if you were travelling at the speed of light.
This point of no return is called the event horizon.
The first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the centre of galaxy Messier 87 and its shadow.
EHT Collaboration
Astronomers say they have “seen what we thought was unseeable” in releasing the first image of a supermassive black hole. So how did we get to this historic observation?
Finally dragged out of the shadows.
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration /
Scientists turned Earth into one giant telescope to capture the uncapturable.
The region around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, imaged with South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope.
South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)
Astronomers have suspected them for ages –now a team as finally spotted a ‘fountain’ in a galaxy far, far away.
Visible light image of the radio galaxy Hercules A obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope superposed with a radio image taken by the Very Large Array of radio telescopes in New Mexico, USA.
NASA
Merging supermassive black holes would emit gravitational waves, allowing scientists to detect them.
An artist’s impression of the path of star S2 as it passes very close to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The very strong gravitational field causes the colour of the star to shift slightly to the red. (Size and colour exaggerated for clarity.)
ESO/M. Kornmesser
Astronomers traced a single star as it passed close to the black hole at the centre of our galaxy, and detected the telltale signature of Einstein’s gravity in action.
Artist’s impression based on real picture of Icecube lab.
IceCube/NSF
The pull created by a black hole is so strong that if you get too close to one – even if you are travelling away from it at the fastest speed it is possible to go – you will never be able escape.
Artist conception of a tidal disruption event (TDE) that happens when a star passes fatally close to a supermassive black hole.
Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF.
Black holes may come in many sizes, but there’s still a gap in the middle. The hunt is on to solve the mystery of where are the intermediate size black holes.
Jets generated by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies can transport huge amounts of energy across great distances.
REUTERS/X-ray: NASA/CXC/Tokyo Institute of Technology/J.Kataoka et al
It’s difficult to get jets - powerful, lightning fast particles - to give up their secrets. The new Square Kilometre Array radio telescope could hold the key to solving jets’ mysteries.
Artist’s concept of the supermassive black hole and the gas clouds surrounding it.
NRAO/AUI/NSF; Dana Berry / SkyWorks; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
Astronomers have detected clumpy gas clouds on the verge of being swallowed by a supermassive black hole, rushing towards it at over 537,000 miles an hour.
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) was instrumental in determining the origin of cosmic rays.
HESS
It’s taken centuries for our understanding of gravity to evolve to where it is today, culminating in the discovery of gravitational waves, as predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago.