Using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) at Kitt Peak in Arizona, astronomers have discovered thousands of new black holes. These discoveries have more than tripled the amount of known intermediate-mass black holes and active black holes at the centers of dwarf galaxies. Images and videos: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Legacy Surveys/D. Lang (Perimeter Institute)/NAOJ/HSC Collaboration/D. de … Read more
Black holes may leak more energy to their surroundings than previously suspected — and the faster these voids spin, the more efficient this energy extraction seems to be. With this in mind, a team of scientists has discovered how the disks of gas and dust that swirl around black holes can become the powerful engines … Read more
If Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs) are real, astronomers expect to find them in dwarf galaxies and globular clusters. There’s tantalizing evidence that they exist but no conclusive proof. So far, there are only candidates. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has found 300 additional candidate IMBHs. Logic says that IMBHs should exist. We know of … Read more
Using 16 years of data from NASA’s gamma-ray detecting Fermi spacecraft, astronomers have discovered that “microquasars,” systems in which a black hole is slowly devouring a star, may be small, but they pack one heck of a punch. Despite their diminutive nature, this research suggests even microquasars snacking on small stars can have an impressive … Read more
Astronomers have uncovered a treasure trove of feeding black holes at the heart of dwarf galaxies — small, faint galaxies containing thousands to several billions of stars but very little gas. The discovery, made with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), contains several “missing link” intermediate-mass black holes. This is both the largest sample of … Read more
By observing tiny ripples in spacetime called “gravitational waves” that propagate away from colliding black holes, scientists could reveal hidden asymmetries in the universe. The team behind new research on the topic suggests that measuring whether gravitational waves from black hole mergers are right- or left-handed can tell us if the Cosmological Principle — an … Read more
Scientists have discovered that some supermassive black holes rotate much more rapidly than expected. The discovery came as the result of a new form of “black hole archeology” that links black hole spins to the gas and dust they have consumed to grow over 7 billion years of cosmic history. The findings, courtesy of the … Read more
Not long ago, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) peered into Cosmic Dawn, the cosmological period when the first galaxies formed less than one billion years after the Big Bang. In the process, it discovered something rather surprising. Not only were there more galaxies (and brighter ones, too!) than expected, but these galaxies had supermassive … Read more
The most detailed map of the universe ever created using gravitational waves could reveal hidden black holes, merging supermassive black holes and even the large-scale structure of the cosmos. The study, conducted by a team led by astronomers from Swinburne University of Technology, also presented the largest-ever galactic-scale detector of gravitational waves, which are basically … Read more
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