black hole

Colossal Black Holes Common in Early Universe

harminka — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:04:50 -0500

Astronomers think that many - perhaps all - galaxies in the universe contain massive black holes at their centers. New observations with the Submillimeter Array now suggest that such colossal black holes were common even 12 billion years ago, when the universe was only 1.7 billion years old and galaxies were just beginning to form.

Boon or Doom as the Large Hadron Collider Spins Up?

Michael Santo — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:58:55 -0500

On Wednesday, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will fire up. The LHC is a massive particle accelerator 17 miles in circumference. And some are worried that spinning up the world's largest atom smasher, located beneath the French-Swiss border, will end the world. Updating the story: ABC refering to AP writes that a beam of protons was successfully fired all the way around a 17-mile tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border.

Closest look ever at edge of black hole

harminka — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:17:29 -0500

Astronomers have taken the closest look ever at the giant black hole in the center of the Milky Way. By combining telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and California, they detected structure at a tiny angular scale of 37 micro-arcseconds - the equivalent of a baseball seen on the surface of the moon, 240,000 miles distant. These observations are among the highest resolution ever done in astronomy.

Artificial event horizon generates hawking radiation

harminka — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:15:18 -0500

Stephen Hawking should be pleased. The first signs of an effect the British physicist predicted more than 30 years ago – known as Hawking radiation – have finally materialised from the simulated edge of a black hole.

New SU supercomputer will help scientists listen for black holes

harminka — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:33:27 -0600

Scientists hope that a new supercomputer being built by Syracuse University's Department of Physics may help them identify the sound of a celestial black hole. The supercomputer, dubbed SUGAR (SU Gravitational and Relativity Cluster), will soon receive massive amounts of data from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) that was collected over a two-year period at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

Heaviest Stellar Black Hole Discovered in Nearby Galaxy

harminka — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:57:33 -0500

Astronomers have located an exceptionally massive black hole in orbit around a huge companion star. This result has intriguing implications for the evolution and ultimate fate of massive stars.

Japanese and NASA Satellites Unveil New Type of Active Galaxy

harminka — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:31:45 -0500

An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Swift satellite and the Japanese/U.S. Suzaku X-ray observatory has discovered a new class of active galactic nuclei (AGN).

Brother for Milky Way's black hole

harminka — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 02:36:00 -0500

IS A second black hole lurking at the heart of the Milky Way? A relatively simple test could answer the question: look for a pair of stars fleeing the galaxy at breakneck speed.

Neutron stars join the black hole jet set

harminka — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:18:47 -0500

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed an X-ray jet blasting away from a neutron star in a binary system. This discovery may help astronomers understand how neutron stars as well as black holes can generate powerful beams of relativistic particles.

Mystery spiral arms explained?

harminka — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:27:31 -0500

Using a trio of space observatories, astronomers may have cracked a 45-year old mystery surrounding two ghostly spiral arms in the galaxy M106 (NGC 4258).

Integral sees Galactic centre playing hide and seek

harminka — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:49:22 -0600

Light echo from the Milky Way's Black Hole

harminka — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:20:13 -0600