Like two Sumo wrestlers squaring off, the closest confirmed pair of supermassive black holes have been observed in tight proximity. These are located approximately 300 light-years apart and were detected using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope…
Researchers have discovered compelling evidence suggesting that the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is likely the result of a past cosmic merger. The study builds on recent…
The origins of aptly named supermassive black holes—which can weigh in at more than a million times the mass of the sun and reside in the center of most galaxies—remain one of the great mysteries of the cosmos.
It takes a long time for supermassive black holes, like the one at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, to form. Typically, the birth of a black hole requires a giant star with the mass of at least 50 of our suns to burn out - a process…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) keeps finding supermassive black holes (SMBH) in the early Universe. They’re in active galactic nuclei seen only 500,000 years after the Big Bang. This was long before astronomers thought they could…
Radiation from dark matter in the early universe may have kept hydrogen gas hot enough to condense into black holes. Supermassive black holes typically take billions of years to form. But the James Webb Space Telescope is finding them not…
Supermassive black holes typically take billions of years to form. But the James Webb Space Telescope is finding them not that long after the Big Bang -- before they should have had time to form. Astrophysicists have discovered that if…
It takes a long time for supermassive black holes, like the one at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, to form. Typically, the birth of a black hole requires a giant star with the mass of at least 50 of our suns to burn out—a process that…
UGC 3478, featured in this Hubble Space Telescope image, is a Seyfert galaxy characterized by its bright active galactic nucleus containing a supermassive black hole. Located relatively close at 128 million light-years, its emitted X-rays…
Researchers have observed a supermassive black hole savoring its last meal as only pieces of the object are being torn off every year it passes by. Continue reading at TweakTown >
A team of astronomers has observed a star in a distant galaxy repeatedly interacting with a supermassive black hole. Initially thought to be destroyed in 2018, the star survived and has since made periodic close passes, leading to…