Ten Trillion-Degree Quasar Astonishes Astronomers

A newly deployed space telescope has struck pay dirt almost immediately, discovering a quasar - a superheated region of dust and gas around a black hole - that is releasing jets at least seventy times hotter than was thought possible.

Mystery rays traced to giant black hole at galactic centre

Alien rays from outer space, which pass through our bodies every second of every day, have been traced to their source – a super-massive black hole that lies at the heart of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, German and Australian scientists have discovered.

LIGO Chirp - The Sound of Two Black Holes Colliding

Gravitational waves sent out from a pair of colliding black holes have been converted to sound waves, as heard in this animation.

Black holes banish matter into cosmic voids

Using a computer simulation, astronomers probe the ‘cosmic web’ of the universe, its honeycomb-like structure on the largest scales.

This Five-Dimensional Black Hole Could Collapse Albert Einstein's General Relativity

Scientists in the U.K. share a five-dimensional black hole simulation model that could ‘break’ the general relativity of Albert Einstein, the very foundation of modern physics.

Black hole observatory launched from Japan

The H-2A rocket flies into the sunset sky over the Tanegashima Space Center at 0845 GMT (3:45 a.m. EST; 5:45 p.m. local time

ASTRO-H X-ray telescope aims to solve black hole mysteries

A Japanese space telescope with X-ray vision sharpened by Canadian technology heads into orbit on Friday. Canadian scientists believe it will help them solve longstanding mysteries about black holes and supernovas.

The black hole death problem

Black holes are not as black as we once thought. They are theorized to die a slow death by evaporation, emitting energy known as Hawking radiation. But the mechanism for evaporation is not well understood. Then again, no one has ever even directly detected a black hole.

Black Hole Suns Could Support Weird Forms of Complex Life

Someone hug Interstellar’s science advisor. Just like in the film, a new study finds that a black hole with exactly the right temperature could serve as a cold sun and even support complex lifeforms.

Signs of second largest black hole in the Milky Way: Possible missing link in black hole evolution

Astronomers using the Nobeyama 45-m Radio Telescope have detected signs of an invisible black hole with a mass of 100 thousand times the mass of the Sun around the center of the Milky Way.

String Theory Might Merge With the Other Theory of Everything

In the last few decades, researchers have pursued the problem in two separate programs—string theory and loop quantum gravity—that are widely considered incompatible by their practitioners. But now some scientists argue that joining forces is the way forward.

Stephen Hawking reckons he's cracked the black hole paradox

Last August, Stephen Hawking tantalised the world by saying he'd worked out a solution to the “black hole paradox”. He's now dropped the first detailed discussion of his hypothesis for the world to pore over, here at ArXiv in a paper entitled Soft hair on black holes.

REVEALED: Inside the heart of a galaxy-guzzling supermassive black hole

NASA has obtained its best ever images of a supermassive black hole and the mysterious ring that feeds the galactic gobbler.

Black holes have a size limit of 50 billion suns

Physicists have firmed up a theoretical limit on the mass of a black hole by figuring out when it will disrupt the disc that feeds it.

Doomed quasar is heading for a powerful explosion

PKS 1302-102 is one of the few known quasars with a pair of black holes within its accretion disc. It is also a curious case for astronomers as it will produce a powerful explosion when these two black holes merge. The scientists trying to determine the scale of this merger estimate that it could result in an enormous release of energy.