supermassive black holes

Artwork depicting “blanets”: planets that have formed around a supermassive black hole. Credit: Kagoshima University
Because the Universe isn't weird enough: Black hole planets may exist.
Phil Plait
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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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Pulsars, black holes, spacetime, and the search for the center of the solar system
Phil Plait
Jul 3, 2020
Artwork depicting gravitational waves distorting space, changing the way neutron star pulses arrive at Earth. Credit: David Champion
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In the distant Universe a supermassive black hole eats a sun *a day*
Phil Plait
Jul 1, 2020
Artist drawing of a blazar, a galaxy with a supermassive black hole spewing out energy. Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab
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Merging black holes blast out light… but not for the reason you'd think
Phil Plait
Jun 29, 2020
A binary pair of black holes about to merge together, near the huge disk of material swirling around a supermassive black hole in a distant active galaxy. Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)
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A binary quasar caught by accident!
Phil Plait
Jun 17, 2020
Artwork depicting binary quasars, two actively galaxies orbiting one another. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/ESO/M. Kornmesser, adapted by Phil Plait
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Quarter-million-light-year long threads in an active galaxy have astronomers… engaged
Phil Plait
Jun 10, 2020
The active galaxy ESO 137-006 is sending out two beams of matter that puff up at the ends and emit radio waves. They appear to be connected by several narrow threads of gas, the origin of which is unclear. The galaxy itself is the dot in the center. Credi
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Why are black holes surrounded by a haze of eerie clouds, and do they eat them?
Elizabeth Rayne
May 22, 2020
clouds around supermassive black hole
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A huge black hole eats a huger black hole's dinner then explodes with the light of a trillion suns
Phil Plait
May 11, 2020
Artwork (not to scale) depicting the binary black hole in the heart of the blazar OJ 287. The less massive black hole plunges through the accretion disk around the more massive black hole, creating a huge bubble of superheated gas. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltec
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A distant quasar has the most powerful wind ever seen. And yeah, it's a doozy.
Phil Plait
Apr 20, 2020
Artwork depicting the central black hole and accretion disk powering a quasar. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld
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Einstein's hand reaches out from a black hole and torques a star's orbit
Phil Plait
Apr 17, 2020
Artwork depicting (exaggerated) orbital precession of a star orbiting a black hole; every time it approaches the orientation of the orbit shifts. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
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Down the mouth of a monster: Event Horizon Telescope stares down a blazar's jet
Phil Plait
Apr 8, 2020
Artist drawing of a blazar, a galaxy with a supermassive black hole spewing out energy. Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab
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What's the last thing you'd see as you fell into a black hole?
Phil Plait
Mar 20, 2020
The path of light around a black hole gets severely distorted by gravity. In this diagram, the Earth is off to the right, and light from material behind the black hole gets bent toward us, leaving a “hole” where the black hole itself is.
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Record-breaking blazar found 12.8 *billion* light years from Earth
Phil Plait
Mar 9, 2020
Artist drawing of a blazar, a galaxy with a supermassive black hole spewing out energy. Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab
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Supermassive black hole blasted the biggest explosion ever
Elizabeth Rayne
Feb 29, 2020
black hole
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Astronomers find a star dive-bombing our galaxy's supermassive black hole
Phil Plait
Feb 12, 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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