Black Holes

Out of four known types of black holes, stellar-mass black holes are the most common and have masses less than 100 times the Sun.

Astronomers Spot First Lone, Free-Wheeling Black Hole in the Milky Way Galaxy

The massive void, zipping at 28 miles per second, may have been blasted into space by a supernova explosion

An artist’s conception of the James Webb Space Telescope at work.

The James Webb Telescope Successfully Launches Into Space

A rocket carrying the $10 billion dollar invention blasted off Christmas morning and powered up as planned, providing astronomers with a long-awaited gift

A new image of a powerful jet firing out of the black hole at the center of the radio galaxy Centaurus A, taken with the Event Horizon Telescope.

New Black Hole Image Shows Plasma Jets Blasting Into Space

Researchers say the new, detailed image of the black hole at the center of the Centaurus A galaxy could reveal how its jets formed

Palomar 5 is located about 80,000 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way’s inner halo.

Scientists Discover Bevy of Black Holes in Our Own Galaxy

Palomar 5's unusual cluster may explain some of the Milky Way's star streams and other phenomena

Data collected revealed that a neutron star twice as massive as the sun was swallowed up by a black hole nine times the size of the sun.

Astrophysicists Detect a Black Hole Gobbling Up a Neutron Star in Two Separate Events

Researchers spotted both events using sensors to locate ripples in spacetime that traveled 900 million years to reach Earth

A new image of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy. The image shows patterns of polarized light around the supermassive black hole, which in turn reveals the structure of the black hole’s magnetic fields.

Scientists Capture Swirling Magnetic Fields in New Image of Black Hole

The updated picture adds polarization, revealing new details of the stunning cosmic phenomenon

Astronomers have discovered the oldest and most distant quasar in the universe. The quasar, named J0313-1806, formed just 670 million years after the Big Bang some 13 billion light years away.

This 13-Billion-Year-Old Supermassive Black Hole Is the Oldest Ever Found

Huge black hole is so old it offers a glimpse into the early universe, and so big it challenges ideas of how black holes form

The spinning magnetar transferred a remarkable amount of energy to the debris created by the collision, heating the material up and generating a bright glow.

In a First, Astronomers Witnessed the Birth of a Supermassive Magnetar Following a Glorious Kilonova

The scientists originally thought that the cosmic crash would create a black hole

This visualization shows the merging of two black holes, which emit gravitational waves.

Scientists Are Detecting More Gravitational Waves Than Ever Before

The LIGO and Virgo teams have spotted 50 total cosmic signals since 2015

This illustration depicts a star (in the foreground) experiencing spaghettification as it's sucked in by a supermassive black hole (in the background) during a 'tidal disruption event'.

Astronomers Capture Best View Yet of a Black Hole Spaghettifying a Star

The star was compressed and stretched out like a long noodle and when the ends collided, half of its mass ejected into space

An artist’s rendering of the mysterious object, which has a mass about 2.6 times that of the sun and was consumed by a black hole some 23 times the mass of the sun. Astronomers say it's less massive than any known black hole and more massive than any known collapsed star, called a neutron star.

Distant Black Hole Collides With a Mysterious Object

Scientists detect what is either the heaviest known neutron star or the least massive black hole ever recorded

Scientists have recorded footage of a black hole shooting hot gas and energy into space

Watch This Black Hole Spew Gas and Energy Into Space

A new video shows a black hole, about 10,000 light years away from Earth, shooting enormous jets of matter

Artist’s impression of the triple system with the closest black hole.

Astronomers Discover the Closest Known Black Hole

The newfound 'invisible' object is only 1,000 light years from home

Left to right, top to bottom: Sheperd Doeleman, Michael Johnson, Sandra Bustamante, Jonathan Weintroub, James Moran, Aleks Popstefanija, Daniel Palumbo; Feryal Ozel, Joseph Farah, Neil Erickson, Peter Galison, Katie Bouman, Dominic Pesce, Garrett K. Keating; Nimesh Patel, Alexander Raymond, Kazinori Akiyama, Vernon Fath, Mark Gurwell, Gopal Narayanan, Peter Schloerb

Meet the Global Team That Captured the First Image of a Black Hole

Never before had scientists seen the phenomenon until they rallied colleagues around the world to view a galaxy far, far away

The green blob of X-rays in the lower left quadrant of the Fireworks galaxy lasted about 10 days before disappearing.

Astronomers Puzzle Over Short-Lived Glowing Green Light Bursts

The ultra luminous X-rays lasted about 10 days in the aptly named Fireworks galaxy

An artist's visualization of the star S0-2 as it passes by the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. As the star gets closer to the supermassive black hole, it experiences a gravitational redshift that is predicted by Einstein's general relativity. By observing this redshift, we can test Einstein's
theory of gravity.

A Star Orbiting in the Extreme Gravity of a Black Hole Validates General Relativity

The star S0-2 gets so close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy that it can be used to test our fundamental understanding of gravity

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine talks about getting American astronauts to the moon in the next five years while participating in a Future Con panel discussion at Awesome Con.

This Year's Future Con Showcased Cutting-Edge Science and Real-Life Superheroes

A part of Washington, D.C.'s Awesome Con, the dynamic presentation series blends entertainment and education

The image reveals the black hole at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the sun.

Astronomers Capture First-Ever Image of a Supermassive Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope reveals the silhouette of a black hole at the center of a galaxy 55 million light-years away

If Light Can't Escape Black Holes, How Do We Get Photos of Them... and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

We Haven't Been Zapped Out Of Existence Yet, So Other Dimensions Are Probably Super Tiny

In theory, other dimensions aren't big enough to form black holes and consume our universe or it would have happened already

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