The James Webb Space Telescope has made one of the most unexpected findings within its first year of service: A high number of faint little red dots in the distant universe could change the way we understand the genesis of supermassive black holes. The research, led by Jorryt Matthee, Assistant Professor in astrophysics at the … Read more
Neutron star mergers are a treasure trove for new physics signals, with implications for determining the true nature of dark matter, according to research from Washington University in St. Louis. On Aug. 17, 2017, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States and Virgo, a detector in Italy, detected gravitational waves from the … Read more
Looking deep into space and time, two teams using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have studied the exceptionally luminous galaxy GN-z11, which existed when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was only about 430 million years old. Delivering on its promise to transform our understanding of the early universe, the James Webb Space Telescope is probing … Read more
When they are active, supermassive black holes play a crucial role in the way galaxies evolve. Until now, growth was thought to be triggered by the violent collision of two galaxies followed by their merger; however, new research led by the University of Bath suggests galaxy mergers alone are not enough to fuel a black … Read more
Nearly every massive galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. When two galaxies merge, their black holes can form a binary pair, meaning they are in a bound orbit with one another. It’s hypothesized that these binaries are fated to eventually merge, but this has never been observed. The question of whether such … Read more
An extraordinary scientific endeavor led by astronomers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, spearheaded by Dr. Lukas Furtak and Prof. Adi Zitrin, has unveiled a remarkable discovery utilizing data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Their findings, published in Nature, shed light on an exceptionally red, gravitationally lensed supermassive black hole lurking in the … Read more
European astronomers recently conducted extensive Very Long Baseline Interferometric (VLBI) observations on the radio jet structure of PKS 2215+020, a powerful quasar. The acquired VLBI data yielded crucial insights into the characteristics of this jet, indicating that PKS 2215+020 exhibits traits typical of a blazar. These findings, unveiled on February 17 in the Universe journal, … Read more
Scientists are on the brink of unraveling the enigmatic forces governing the universe, as they have made significant strides in measuring gravity at a microscopic level. Understanding gravity at the quantum scale has long eluded scientists, including luminaries like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Einstein’s theory of general relativity couldn’t fully incorporate the quantum nature … Read more
Astronomers have discovered one of the most powerful eruptions from a black hole ever recorded. This mega-explosion billions of years ago may help explain the formation of a striking pattern of star clusters around two massive galaxies, resembling beads on a string. This discovery was made in the system known as SDSS J1531+3414 (SDSS J1531 … Read more
Using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have characterized a bright quasar, finding it to be not only the brightest of its kind but also the most luminous object ever observed. Quasars are the bright cores of distant galaxies, and supermassive black holes power them. The black hole in this record-breaking … Read more
For a long time, our understanding of the universe’s first galaxies leaned heavily on theory. The light from that age only reached us after traveling for billions of years, and on the way, it was obscured and stretched into the infrared. Clues about the first galaxies are hidden in that messy light. Now that we … Read more
Stars are celestial bodies that emit light and heat, providing the energy that sustains life and drives the processes occurring throughout the universe. At the heart of a star lies a complex and fascinating process known as nuclear fusion, which powers the star and produces the radiant energy that we observe from Earth. Understanding how … Read more
Theoretical predictions have been confirmed with the discovery of an outflow of molecular gas from a quasar when the universe was less than a billion years old. A quasar is a compact region powered by a supermassive black hole located in the center of a massive galaxy. They are extremely luminous, with a point-like appearance … Read more
Within almost every galaxy there is a supermassive black hole. This by itself implies some kind of formative connection between the two. We have also observed how gas and dust within a galaxy can drive the growth of galactic black holes, and how the dynamics of black holes can both drive star formation or hinder … Read more
Astronomers from across the globe have embarked on a comprehensive investigation of AT 2023clx, an extraordinary tidal disruption event (TDE) that stands as the closest optical phenomenon of its kind to Earth. Published on the arXiv pre-print server on January 22, the findings from this multiwavelength observation campaign offer valuable insights into the characteristics of … Read more
Redshift, a fundamental concept in astronomy and cosmology, serves as a cornerstone for understanding the universe’s vastness, expansion, and evolution. It represents a phenomenon where the light emitted by celestial objects, such as galaxies, stars, and quasars, is shifted towards longer wavelengths as they move away from an observer. This phenomenon, discovered over a century … Read more
The science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke selected his own seven wonders of the world in a BBC television series in 1997. The only astronomical object he included was SS 433. It had attracted attention already in the late 1970s due to its X-ray emission and was later discovered to be at the center of … Read more
This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a group of interacting galaxies known as LEDA 60847. LEDA 60847 is classified as an active galactic nuclei, or AGN. An AGN has a supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s central region that is accreting material. The AGN emits radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and shines … Read more
Galaxies and nebulae are two captivating astronomical phenomena, each with distinct characteristics and roles in the vast tapestry of the universe. Understanding the differences between galaxies and nebulae is crucial in unraveling the complexities of cosmic structures, their formations, and their contributions to the cosmic landscape. A galaxy is an immense system of stars, stellar … Read more
Black holes are fascinating celestial objects that defy our conventional understanding of space and time. These enigmatic entities are formed through the gravitational collapse of massive stars, a process that results in an extraordinarily dense region in space where gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape. Understanding how black holes form … Read more