Two record-breaking black hole behemoths spotted

Two gargantuan black holes -- weighing in at nearly 10 billion times the mass of our sun -- have been discovered, possibly revealing a "missing link" in the galactic evolution puzzle.

Birth of famous black hole: longstanding mysteries about object called Cygnus X-1 unraveled

A precise distance measurement by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) allowed astronomers to accurately calculate the mass and spin of a famous black hole, thus providing a complete description of the object.

Planets could orbit singularities inside black holes

Certain black holes can have a complex internal structure that could allow photons, particles, and perhaps even planets to orbit the central singularity

Monster black hole eats worlds

A new study claims a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy is ripping apart entire worlds on a daily basis.

Could primordial black holes be dark matter?

(PhysOrg.com) -- “We know that about 25% of the matter in the universe is dark matter, but we don’t know what it is,” Michael Kesden tells PhysOrg.com. “There are a number of different theories about what dark matter could be, but we think one alternative might be very small primordial black holes.”

Black holes: a model for superconductors?

Physicists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have shown how charged black holes can be used to model the behavior of interacting electrons

Exotic galaxy reveals tantalizing tale

A galaxy with a combination of characteristics never seen before is giving astronomers a tantalizing peek at processes they believe played key roles in the growth of galaxies and clusters of galaxies early in the history of the Universe. The galaxy, dubbed Speca by the team of researchers, is only the second spiral, as opposed to elliptical, galaxy known to produce large, powerful jets of subatomic particles moving at nearly the speed of light. It also is one of only two galaxies to show that such activity occurred in three separate episodes.

NASA's Chandra finds massive black holes common in early universe

Using the deepest X-ray image ever taken, astronomers found the first direct evidence that massive black holes were common in the early universe. This discovery from NASA

Mini black holes that look like atoms could pass through Earth daily

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a new study, scientists have proposed that mini black holes may interact with matter very differently than previously thought. If the proposal is correct, it would mean that the time it would take for a mini black hole to swallow the Earth would be many orders of magnitude longer than the age of the Universe.

Giant ring of black holes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just in time for Valentine

For fully mature black holes, time stands still

The end state of a black hole may be a mind-bending kind of spacetime independent of time, scientists say.

Super-massive black holes began growing when universe was very young

The most massive black holes began growing at a very fast rate when the universe was only about 1.2 billion years old, according to a new study by astronomers in Tel Aviv.

Black holes found in thunderstorms

Scientists using NASA's Fermi Space Telescope have detected antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before.