MIT astronomers have observed the elusive starlight surrounding some of the earliest quasars in the universe. The distant signals, which trace back more than 13 billion years to the universe’s infancy, are revealing clues to how the very first black holes and galaxies evolved. Quasars are the blazing centers of active galaxies, which host an … Read more
The search for gravitational lenses is a fascinating endeavor in astronomy and cosmology that has revolutionized our understanding of the universe’s structure, composition, and evolution. Gravitational lenses are cosmic phenomena predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity, where the gravitational field of massive objects, such as galaxies or galaxy clusters, bends and distorts the paths … Read more
Quasars, short for “quasi-stellar radio sources,” are among the most enigmatic and fascinating objects in the cosmos. They are incredibly bright and energetic, emitting radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays and gamma rays. Quasars are powered by the accretion of material onto supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, … Read more
Black holes are among the most intriguing and enigmatic objects in the universe, representing the mysterious endpoints of gravity’s relentless pull. These cosmic entities, born from the collapse of massive stars or through other astrophysical processes, possess such intense gravitational fields that not even light can escape their grasp. The concept of a black hole … Read more
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
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
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