NASA’s IXPE Details Shapes of Structures at Newly Discovered Black Hole

NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) has helped astronomers better understand the shapes of structures essential to a black hole – specifically, the disk of material swirling around it, and the shifting plasma region called the corona. The stellar-mass black hole, part of the binary system Swift J1727.8-1613, was discovered in the summer of 2023 … Read more

How big can ‘ultramassive’ black holes get? Scientists may have the answer

Scientists believe that at the heart of all large galaxies lurk supermassive black holes, cosmic titans with masses equivalent to that of millions or even billions of suns. Yet some black holes exceed even these monstrous masses to become “ultramassive black holes.” The most massive black hole that we are currently aware of is Phoenix … Read more