Quasar tsunamis rip across galaxies

Astronomers using the Hubble Telescope found that the region around a quasar’s black hole pushes out material at a few percent the speed of light. These quasar tsunamis wreak havoc on the galaxies in which the quasars live. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/quasar-tsunamis-rip-across-galaxies…

Image: Hubble investigates hungry galaxy

The subject of this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a spiral galaxy named NGC 1589, was once the scene of a violent bout of cosmic hunger pangs. As astronomers looked on, a poor, hapless star was seemingly torn apart and devoured by the ravenous supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-image-hubble-hungry-galaxy.html…

The universe may have been filled with supermassive black holes at the dawn of time

As the universe cooled in the era after the Big Bang, a supermassive black hole had already formed in the center of a galaxy, forming a giant engine of energy we can still see today. Source: https://www.livescience.com/early-universe-black-hole-blazar-galaxy-discovey.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…

Astronomers detect biggest explosion in history of universe

Scientists studying a distant galaxy cluster have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe since the Big Bang. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/astronomers-detect-biggest-explosion-history-universe…

Telescopes Detect ‘Biggest Explosion Since Big Bang’

Scientists have detected evidence of a colossal explosion in space — five times bigger than anything observed before. Iwastheone shares a report: The huge release of energy is thought to have emanated from a supermassive black hole some 390 million light years from Earth. The eruption is said to have left a giant dent in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. Researchers reported…

Mysterious fast radio burst repeats in 16-day rhythm

For the first time, a fast radio burst has been found to be repeating, in a regular 16-day cycle. The baffling detection from the CHIME radio telescope deepens the mystery of these bizarre intergalactic objects. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mysterious-fast-radio-burst-repeats-in-16-day-rhythm…

Astronomers discover class of strange objects near our galaxy’s enormous black hole

Astronomers from UCLA’s Galactic Center Orbits Initiative have discovered a new class of bizarre objects at the center of our galaxy, not far from the supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. They published their research today in the journal Nature. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-astronomers-class-strange-galaxy-enormous.html…

New view of Milky Way’s center

The SOFIA flying telescope has captured a new panoramic image of the center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The image shows a region more than 600 light-years across, revealing unprecedented details within the center’s dense swirls of gas and dust. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-image-milky-way-center-sofia-video…

Top 9 EarthSky stories of 2019

From the 1st landing on the moon’s far side to the 1st actual image of a black hole, here’s a quick roundup of 9 of the stories our readers enjoyed most in 2019. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/top-9-stories-of-2019…