Tag: blackhole

Black hole observed ‘awakening’ for the first time

PARIS, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – Astronomers have been able to observe a supermassive black hole waking up and setting the heart of its host galaxy alight for the first time, the European Southern Observatory said on Tuesday. The galaxy 300 million light years from Earth in the Virgo constellation had been quiet for decades until late 2019, when it suddenly began to shine brighter than ever before. The centre of the galaxy — where […]

Milky Way’s black hole surrounded by strong magnetic fields: astronomers

PARIS, March 27, 2024 (AFP) – Astronomers have discovered powerful magnetic fields spiralling around the black hole that sits at the centre of the Milky Way, the European Southern Observatory said Wednesday. A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) for the first time showed in polarised light a ring of magnetic fields surrounding the Sagittarius A* black hole. The fields are similar to those observed around the M87* black hole at the heart […]

Runaway black hole creating trail of new stars: scientists

Los Angeles, United States | AFP | A huge black hole is tearing through space, leaving behind a 200,000-light-year-long trail of newborn stars, space scientists say. The supermassive monster — likely born of a bizarre game of intergalactic billiards — is rampaging through the blackness and plowing into gas clouds in its path. The incredible forces at play mean this gas is being forged into a contrail of new stars, which have been captured on […]

Astronomers discover one of biggest black holes ever recorded

  Paris, France | AFP | by Daniel Lawler One of the largest black holes ever recorded has been discovered using a new technique that could spot thousands more of the insatiable celestial monsters in the coming years, according to astronomers. The ultramassive black hole, one of just four ever observed, is more than 30 billion times the mass of the Sun, a new study said. It is the first black hole ever observed using […]

Astronomers reveal first image of black hole at Milky Way’s centre

by Pierre CELERIER Agence France Presse An international team of astronomers on Thursday unveiled the first image of a supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy — a cosmic body known as Sagittarius A*. The image — produced by a global team of scientists known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration — is the first, direct visual confirmation of the presence of this invisible object, and comes three years […]

Scientists detect mysterious ‘intermediate mass’ black hole

by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of a black hole — the oldest ever detected — that shouldn’t even exist according to the current understanding of cosmic monsters so dense not even light can escape their gravitational pull. Born of a merger between two other black holes, GW190521 weighs in at 142 times the mass of our Sun and is the first “intermediate-mass” black hole ever observed, two consortiums […]

China launches its first X-ray space telescope to study black holes, pulsars

CCTV — China launched its first X-ray space telescope to observe black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts, via a Long March-4B rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Thursday. The 2.5-ton Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), dubbed Insight, was sent into an orbit of 550 kilometers above the earth at 11:00  to help scientists better understand the evolution of black holes, the strong magnetic fields and the interiors of pulsars. Through the […]

Japan launches satellite to study black holes

  TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan successfully launched a jointly developed space observation satellite on Wednesday tasked with studying mysterious black holes, the country’s space agency said. The ASTRO-H satellite, developed in collaboration between the agency, NASA and other groups, is set to orbit at an altitude of about 580 kilometres (360 miles) and observe X-rays emanating mainly from black holes and galaxy clusters. The satellite was carried out by the country’s mainstay H-IIA rocket, which […]