Some black holes are anything but black – and we’ve found more than 75,000 of the brightest ones

Researchers have found over 75,000 of the brightest black holes. (Image credit: ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray), CC BY-SA) This article was originally published at The Conversation. When the most massive stars die, they collapse to form some of the densest objects known in the Universe: black holes. They are the … Read more

The Tiny Dots in This Image Aren’t Stars or Galaxies. They’re Black Holes

The image above may look like a fairly normal picture of the night sky, but what you’re looking at is a lot more special than just glittering stars. Each of those white dots is an active supermassive black hole.   And each of those black holes is devouring material at the heart of a galaxy … Read more

The 10 wildest things we learned about black holes in 2021

Scientists who study black holes can rest assured that their field will deliver astounding and mind-bending findings, year after year. And 2021 was no exception, with many exciting new results regarding these strange gravitational beasts. Here, we take a look at this year’s most captivating black hole discoveries and how they’ve advanced our understanding of … Read more

Crows Are So Smart They Seem to Understand The Concept of Tool Value

A new study has demonstrated crows can assign value to their tools just like we do. “Many of us will fuss about a brand-new phone, making sure it does not get scratched, dropped or lost. But we may handle an old phone with a cracked screen quite carelessly,” said behavioral ecologist Barbara Klump now at … Read more

Black holes may have existed since the beginning of time (and could explain dark matter mystery)

The nature and origin of black holes and their role in the evolution of the universe still puzzles scientists. Now, a new study suggests that the existence of black holes from the earliest moments of the universe could explain more than one astronomical mystery.  The new study suggests that small primordial black holes filled the … Read more

Exciting New Paper Tests a Dark Matter And Black Hole Prediction Made by Hawking

The Universe is too heavy. According to our measurements of the normal matter in the Universe, there’s not nearly enough of it to account for the strength of the gravitational effects we can see.   Whatever is making up the rest of the mass is nothing we can detect directly, and the quest to figure … Read more

Supermassive black holes: Two nearby giants are heading for a collision

Two supermassive black holes have been discovered just 1600 light years apart, and they are likely to collide in about 250 million years Space 30 November 2021 By Leah Crane The two bright spots in this image are dense groups of stars, each with a supermassive black hole at the centre ESO/Voggel et al. A … Read more

NASA X-ray telescope: New spacecraft will study the science of black holes

NASA and the Italian Space Agency are launching the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer space telescope to measure the X-ray light coming from objects including neutron stars and black holes Space 8 December 2021 By Will Gater An artist’s impression of the IXPE mission NASA NASA and the Italian Space Agency are scheduled to launch an … Read more