Closest black hole is actually just one star eating another

Two years ago, astronomers thought they had seen signs of a black hole 1000 light years from Earth – but it turns out to be a star being consumed by its neighbour Space 2 March 2022 By Alex Wilkins An artist’s impression of the binary star system HR 6819 ESO/L. Calçada Strange signals coming from … Read more

Wonky black hole suggest we don’t understand how cosmic behemoths work

We thought black holes rotated in the same plane as their orbit. One that is tilted by at least 40 degrees suggests our understanding of their behaviour needs an update Space 24 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins Artist impression of the X-ray binary system containing a black hole (small black dot at the centre of … Read more

Wonky black hole suggest we don’t understand how cosmic behemoths work

We thought black holes rotated in the same plane as their orbit. One that is tilted by at least 40 degrees suggests our understanding of their behaviour needs an update Space 24 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins Artist impression of the X-ray binary system containing a black hole (small black dot at the centre of … Read more

Meta: Rogue black hole: First truly isolated stellar-mass black hole found

Rogue black holes are usually detected by the matter falling into them, but the first truly isolated black hole has been found because of the way it bends the light of a distant star Space 3 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins Artist’s illustration of a rogue black hole Shutterstock/Vadim Sadovski An isolated stellar-mass black hole … Read more

Black hole created star-forming gas jets in a dwarf galaxy

Black holes located in dwarf galaxies usually stop star formation, but now one has been seen seeding new stars through a huge plume of ionised gas Space 19 January 2022 By Alex Wilkins A dwarf galaxy known as Hen 2-10 NASA A black hole at the centre of a dwarf galaxy has birthed new stars … Read more

Space cow: Bizarre explosion was probably a failed supernova

By Leah Crane Illustration of a cow in space Shutterstock An explosion that baffled astronomers in 2018 may finally have an explanation. Observations of X-rays from the blast have revealed that it was probably a massive star that only partially blew up, leaving behind either a dense neutron star or a small black hole – … Read more