Astronomers' world-first discovery: twin stars trapped in galactic black hole orbit

The discovery helps explain a long-running cosmic mystery about why some stars hurtle through space much faster than others.

Scientists Set Out to Capture a Black Hole - an Explosion Photobombed

Astronomers made a photo of a colossal belch – a gamma-ray eruption from one of the powerful jets of plasma launched from the black hole's poles as it feeds.

Black Hole Jet Stumbles Into Something in the Dark

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found an unusual mark from a giant black hole’s powerful jet striking an unidentified object in its path.

Supermassive black hole binary emits unexpected flares

Their orbit periodically takes them through a cloud of gas, triggering flares.

This Black Hole Is Eating Stuff at Over 40 Times The Theoretical Limit

Sitting in the middle of a galaxy called LID-568, this black hole, as seen just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, appearing to guzzle down material at a jaw-dropping rate of over 40 times a theoretical maximum known as the Eddington limit.

The Early Universe Could Have Been Full of Very Dark Holes

Supermassive black holes are some of the most impressive objects in the universe - with masses around one billion times more than that of the Sun.

Supermassive Black Holes in Nearby Galaxy Caught on The Brink of Collision

The latest discovery used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to spot three bright, visible light 'hot spots' deep inside a pair of colliding galaxies. 

This Mysterious Black Hole at The Dawn of Time Weighs a Billion Suns

A black hole discovered lurking in the Cosmic Dawn is just way too big to easily explain.

Astronomers map 1.3 million supermassive black holes

Data from the Gaia Space Telescope was used to identify quasars, the intensely bright young galaxies fueled by black holes.

Strong magnetic fields spiraling at the edge of Milky Way's central black hole

A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organised magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*).

The Most Epic Pair of Supermassive Black Holes Ever Seen

A galaxy some 750 million light-years away has been discovered hosting the heftiest pair of supermassive black holes we've ever seen.

Our Galaxy's Heart Is Pulsing With a Mysterious Signal

Every 76 minutes, like clockwork, the gamma-ray flux of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole in our galaxy, fluctuates, suggesting an orbital motion of something whirling madly around the black hole.

Oldest black hole found, and it may solve a cosmic mystery

Two NASA space telescopes teamed up to scrutinize a distant galaxy and discovered something mind-boggling: a gargantuan black hole inside a galaxy that’s more than 13 billion years old. 

Mysterious Black Hole Twins May Fuel The Brightest Galaxies in Space

According to a new analysis of a type of galaxy known as a blazar, the best explanation for unusual changes in their glow is a pair of supermassive black holes locked in a decaying orbit.

Scientists spot earliest supermassive black hole

Scientists have detected an active supermassive black estimated to have been created 570 million years after the Big Bang.