Black holes can expel a thousand times more matter than they capture. The mechanism that governs both ejection and capture is the accretion disk, a vast mass of gas and dust spiraling around the black hole at extremely high speeds. The disk is hot and emits light as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation. Part of the orbiting matter is…
Tag: event horizon
Black holes are like a hologram
The theory of relativity describes black holes as being spherical, smooth and simple. Quantum theory describes them as being extremely complex and full of information. New research now proposes a surprising solution to this apparent duality. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/black-holes-are-like-a-hologram…
Why it’s better to fall into a big black hole, and other bizarre facts
Black holes exert a powerful pull on our imagination, but their weirdness starts way before you cross the event horizon, says astrophysicist Chris Impey Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2244667-why-its-better-to-fall-into-a-big-black-hole-and-other-bizarre-facts/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
ALMA spots the twinkling heart of our Milky Way
Astronomers used the ALMA telescope in Chile to observe irregular flickers in millimeter-waves from the center of our Milky Way galaxy: the twinkling heart of the galaxy. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/alma-gaseous-disk-black-hole-milky-way…
Why clouds form near black holes
Clouds in the greater universe are clumpy areas of greater density than their surroundings. Space telescopes have observed these cosmic clouds in the vicinity of supermassive black holes. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/cosmic-clouds-form-near-black-holes…
Something is lurking in the heart of Quasar 3C 279
One year ago, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration published the first image of a black hole in the nearby radio galaxy M 87. Now the collaboration has extracted new information from the EHT data on the distant quasar 3C 279: they observed the finest detail ever seen in a jet produced by a supermassive black hole. New analyses, led by…
Black Hole Photo May Also Have Captured Light From Around the Universe
“When you point a telescope at a black hole, it turns out you don’t just see the swirling sizzling doughnut of doom formed by matter falling in,” reports the New York Times. “You can also see the whole universe.” Light from an infinite array of distant stars and galaxies can wrap around the black hole like ribbons around a maypole, again…
Research team discovers path to razor-sharp black hole images
Last April, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) sparked international excitement when it unveiled the first image of a black hole. Today, a team of researchers have published new calculations that predict a striking and intricate substructure within black hole images from extreme gravitational light bending. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-team-path-razor-sharp-black-hole.html…
What is a globular cluster?
Globular clusters are spherical collections of up to perhaps a million stars, orbiting mostly in the star halo of spiral galaxies, containing some of a galaxy’s oldest stars. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/definition-what-is-a-globular-cluster…
Could a Habitable Planet Orbit a Black Hole?
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Supermassive black holes have a reputation for consuming everything in their path, from gas clouds to entire solar systems. So is there any way aliens could live on a world that actually orbited one of these cosmic beasts? Surprisingly, the answer is a tentative yes, researchers say, although there are plenty of reasons why…