supermassive black holes

Artwork depicting the accretion disk around a supermassive black hole in a quasar, creating a jet of matter blowing outwards. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva
Another record-breaking quasar with a black hole that’s *too* supermassive
Phil Plait
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Astronomers may be hearing the whisper of billions of black holes merging across the Universe
Phil Plait
Merging black holes art
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So how many supermassive black holes *are* there in Holmberg 15A anyway?
Phil Plait
Abell 85, a galaxy cluster with over 400 galaxy members. Holmberg 15A is the central elliptical galaxy, and is extremely massive. Credit: Matthias Kluge/USM/MPE
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The most distant astronomical object ever seen… in 1962
Phil Plait
A deep Hubble image of the quasar 3C 273 shows it as a blazing point source, almost like any other star. The linear feature to the upper left is a jet of material accelerated by the quasar’s black hole central engine. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
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So, um, does anyone remember where we put that supermassive black hole?
Phil Plait
X-ray (purple) and visible light composite of the center of the galaxy cluster Abell 2261.
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Our galaxy is blowing *enormous* hot bubbles into space and no one knows why
Phil Plait
Dec 10, 2020
An all-sky map showing the X-ray bubbles seen by eROSITA (teal) and in gamma rays by Fermi (red). The X-ray bubbles are larger and appear to fully enclose the gamma-ray bubbles. Credit: MPE/IKI courtesy eROSITA PI Andrea Merloni
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Elect to take a respite from the day with a spectacular face-on spiral galaxy
Phil Plait
Nov 3, 2020
NGC 3147, a face-on spiral galaxy seen by Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.
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How do supermassive black holes launch powerful jets of matter? With hot gas and magnetism.
Phil Plait
Oct 15, 2020
Artwork depicting a supermassive black hole surrounded by an accretion disk and magnetic corona, with powerful jets launching away in opposite directions. Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
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Astronomers get a front row seat to a star getting torn apart by a huge black hole
Phil Plait
Oct 12, 2020
Artwork depicting a tidal disruption event, when a star is torn apart by a black hole. A stream of matter is puller off, forming a disk around the black hole and creating an outflow of high-speed material. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
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If you want to disprove Einstein, it just got 500 times harder
Phil Plait
Oct 7, 2020
A simulation of the light emitted by material as it swirls around the black hole M87*. Red is long-wavelength radio waves, blue is millimeter-range waves (what the Event Horizon Telescopes sees), and green is near-infrared light.
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The ring of material around M87’s supermassive black hole is changing with time
Phil Plait
Sep 23, 2020
The very first image of the "shadow" of a supermassive black hole. This shows the region around a black hole with a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun, located 55 million light years away from Earth in the core of the galaxy M87. Credit: NSF
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The ghost of an angry black hole still haunts this galaxy
Phil Plait
Sep 3, 2020
Radio image of the galaxy PGC 064440 shows it had jets of matter streaming away from it (long lines) in the past. Eventually the jets stopped, and the material is flowing back to the galaxy, but then gets pushed away to form the shorter arms of the X.
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The fastest star in the galaxy has been found, and yeah, it’s really *really* fast
Phil Plait
Aug 17, 2020
A simulation showing the positions and orbits of stars orbiting the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/spaceengine.org
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When the supermassive black hole's away, the stars will play
Phil Plait
Aug 10, 2020
An optical (Hubble) and X-ray (Chandra, blue) image of the galaxy cluster SpARC 1049 shows the galaxies in the cluster center. Stars are forming at a furious rate right in the center of this image. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/Univ. of Montreal/J. Hlavacek-Lar
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Because the Universe isn't weird enough: Black hole planets may exist.
Phil Plait
Aug 4, 2020
Artwork depicting “blanets”: planets that have formed around a supermassive black hole. Credit: Kagoshima University
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A record-breaking quasar poses a supermassive problem
Phil Plait
Jul 6, 2020
artwork of a black hole accretion disk
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