This Weirdly Tilted Black Hole Could Upend Our Understanding of How They Form

Black holes could make a strong case for being the most fascinating phenomena in the whole Universe, and scientists are constantly discovering more about the way that they work and behave – including how they’re created in the first place.   Now, a new study of an unusually misaligned one some 10,000 light-years away from … Read more

Strangely tilted black hole challenges formation theories

A tilted black hole spinning around a misaligned axis has been discovered in our galaxy, challenging theories of black hole formation. The black hole and its companion star form a system called MAXI J1820+070, which lies some 10,000 light-years away from Earth. The system was first spotted by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2018. But … Read more

Ancient ‘Megafloods’ Tilted The Very Direction of Earth’s Crust, Scientists Find

Earth’s last major ice age locked up gargantuan amounts of water in vast glaciers. Once they melted, it was a spectacle to behold as tremendous floods gouged channels into the face of the planet.   The remnants of one of the largest of these ancient deluges are still visible in eastern Washington, in an area … Read more

Earth’s Tilted Magnetic Field 41,000 Years Ago Pushed The Auroras to Unexpected Places

If you want to be dazzled by a spectacular northern lights display, your best bet is to skywatch near the North Pole. But that wasn’t the case 41,000 years ago, when a disruption of Earth’s magnetic field sent auroras wandering toward the equator.   During this geomagnetic disturbance, known as the Laschamp event or the Laschamp excursion, … Read more