supermassive black holes

The elliptical galaxy M87 has a supermassive black hole in its heart (far too small to be seen in this Hubble image).
A fleet of telescopes on and above Earth zooms in on M87’s enormous black hole
Phil Plait
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A new way to find gigantic black holes paired up at the dawn of the Universe
Phil Plait
Artwork showing a pair of quasars just a few thousand light years apart, each the center of a relatively normal galaxy that are merging with one another. Such objects should have been more common in the very young Universe. Credit: International Gemini Ob
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Event Horizon Telescope sees the magnetic engine behind a supermassive black hole's immense power
Phil Plait
The actual image of material around the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy M87, showing the direction of light polarization coming from that matter. This is due to magnetic fields in the material, which powers much of the emission.
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What tossed a supermassive black hole around in the center of a distant galaxy?
Phil Plait
Mar 16, 2021
Black hole with accretion disk and jets
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A quasar at the edge of the observable Universe has its radio turned *way* up
Phil Plait
Mar 8, 2021
Artwork depicting a distant quasar, an actively feeding supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy, blasting out jets of matter and energy. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
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Another record-breaking quasar with a black hole that’s *too* supermassive
Phil Plait
Jan 15, 2021
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
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Astronomers may be hearing the whisper of billions of black holes merging across the Universe
Phil Plait
Jan 13, 2021
Merging black holes art
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So how many supermassive black holes *are* there in Holmberg 15A anyway?
Phil Plait
Jan 11, 2021
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
Dec 24, 2020
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
Dec 21, 2020
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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