Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered the first pair of supermassive black holes in a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way. Approximately 160 million light years from Earth, the pair is the nearest known such phenomenon.

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Astronomers are confident the Cygnus X-1 system contains a black hole, and with these latest studies they have remarkably precise values of its mass, spin, and distance from Earth.

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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found a cluster of young, blue stars encircling the first intermediate-mass black hole ever discovered. The presence of the star cluster suggests that the black hole was once at the core of a now-disintegrated dwarf galaxy.

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A new study provides a possible explanation for the mysterious flares. The suggestion is that there is a cloud around Sgr A* containing hundreds of trillions of asteroids and comets, which have been stripped from their parent stars.

The post X-ray flares observed by Chandra are asteroids being torn to pieces in a black hole appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

An international team of scientists has discovered an ‘ordinary’ black hole in the galaxy Centaurus A. This is the first time that a normal-size black hole has been detected away from the immediate vicinity of our own Galaxy.

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A new study by astrophysicists at the University of Utah and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., has found a new explanation for the growth of supermassive black holes: they repeatedly capture and swallow single stars from pairs of stars that get too close.

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Smithsonian astronomers have joined their colleagues from other observatories in a daring new venture: to photograph the giant black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy.

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An extraordinary outburst produced by a black hole in a nearby galaxy has provided direct evidence for a population of old, volatile stellar black holes.

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Supermassive black holes snack infrequently, making the recent discovery of a black hole in the act of feeding all the more exciting to astronomers.

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Astronomers have found strong evidence that a massive black hole is being ejected from its host galaxy at a speed of several million miles per hour.

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A new study of Chandra data has revealed two nearby galaxies whose supermassive black holes are growing faster than the galaxies themselves.

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Imagine a sphere more than 2 million miles across – eight times the distance from Earth to the Moon – spinning so fast that its […]

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Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered an unprecedented bonanza of black holes in the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the nearest galaxies […]

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Every massive galaxy has a black hole at its center, and the heftier the galaxy, the bigger its black hole. But why are the two […]

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Researchers have discovered a black hole that grew much more quickly than its host galaxy. The discovery calls into question previous assumptions on the development […]

The post A Precocious Black Hole appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Most people think of black holes as giant vacuum cleaners sucking in everything that gets too close. But the supermassive black holes at the centers […]

The post Event Horizon Telescope Reveals Magnetic Fields at Milky Way’s Central Black Hole appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes 29 and 36 times the […]

The post Ligo’s Twin Black Holes Might Have Been Born Inside a Single Star appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Every few thousand years, an unlucky star wanders too close to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The black hole’s powerful […]

The post Our Galaxy’s Black Hole is Spewing Planet-size “Spitballs” appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

AUSTIN, Texas — Astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University have put a basic principle of black holes to the test, […]

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The center of our Galaxy has been intensely studied for many years, but it still harbors surprises for scientists. A snake-like structure lurking near our […]

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A team of astrophysicists and planetary scientists has predicted that Neptune-like planets located near the center of the Milky Way galaxy have been transformed into […]

The post Black hole blasts may transform “Mini-Neptunes” into rocky worlds appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Black holes sound wildly complicated. After all, there are all sorts of bizarre things going on: intense gravity, the warping of the fabric of space, the distortion of time itself. But when it comes to describing black holes, it comes down to just two numbers: the mass of the black hole and its spin. That’s right. Everything you physically need to describe a black hole is found in just these two numbers.

The post Black Holes, just two numbers is all you need… appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The latest black hole discovery opens a whole new universe of not-so-big black holes.

A binary star system that got too close to our resident supermassive black hole paid the ultimate price.

Astronomers use infrared "eyes" to shed light on these enigmatic cosmic structures.

A black hole's epic "burp" may help solve one of the deep mysteries of the galactic core.

Event Horizon Telescope will harness the power of 9 telescopes around the globe.

There's a supermassive black hole behind the 'baby boom' in the Phoenix galaxy cluster.

Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have discovered a monster black hole larger than thought possible.

The unusually close trifecta of black holes will likely merge into one giant entity over the next several hundred million years.

Scientists say there may be a second black hole lurking at the heart of our galaxy.

Researchers studying the mysterious objects say the look like blobs of gas but behave like stars.

Black holes generally power some of the brightest objects in the universe, so why is Sagittarius A* so calm?

Meet your new but shy galactic neighbor: A black hole left over from the death of a fleeting young star. European astronomers have found the closest black hole to Earth yet, so near that the two stars dancing with it can be seen by the naked eye. Of course, close is relative on the galactic […]

Meet your new but shy galactic neighbor: A black hole left over from the death of a fleeting young star. European astronomers have found the closest black hole to Earth yet, so near that the two stars dancing with it can be seen by the naked eye. Of course, close is relative on the galactic […]

The black hole is roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth — and more than 2,000 light-years closer than the next one known. What's more, scientists say, it may be just "the tip of an exciting iceberg."

Olga in a Black Hole is a portal to an audacious, perilous, and glorious future world. Chris Ianuzzi's lifetime of building sonic landscapes is harnessed to create a spellbinding glimpse into one of our possible futures. One of wonder and cosmic discovery.

Black holes usually cannot be seen but astronomers have now discovered one closer to Earth than any that have ever been located before.

If Morrison had a message for farmers, announcing it on a Friday afternoon amid football finals, school holidays and long weekends is not how you'd typically deliver it, writes Kath Sullivan.

1. Astronomers find closest black hole to Earth yet to be discovered  9News
2. New black hole discovered - and it's the closest to Earth ever found, say scientists  Mirror Online
3. View Full coverage on Google News

As scientists continue to weigh in, one thing is clear: the "monster black hole" discovered in 2019 doesn't exist.

Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other institutes have found the black hole that is currently the closest to Earth. The aforementioned black hole lies just 1000-light years from our planet, and is closer to our Solar System compared to others found to date. What’s more, it is part of a triple system that can be seen with the naked eye.

They say this system could just be the tip of the iceberg, as many more similar black holes could be found in the future.

"We were totally surprised when we realised that this is the first stellar system with a black hole that can be seen with the unaided eye," says Petr Hadrava, Emeritus Scientist at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague and co-author of the research.

More details about this finding over at ScienceDaily.

(Image Credit: JohnsonMartin/ Pixabay)

I have finally seen The Black Hole for the first time in probably 25 years. No, make that 35 years. I don’t know, it’s been awhile, which is kind of weird for such an iconic, formative movie. Don’t laugh, you know it’s true — there’s a whole generation of us who saw this while we […]

The LIGO and Virgo observatories appear to have picked up gravitational waves from a first-of-its-kind astronomical observation.

A pair of physicists think it’s possible that a tiny black hole left over from the universe’s early days lurks in the outer solar system.

Scientists predict the explosive behaviour of two supermassive black holes almost to the hour.

An unseen object is found to be lurking in a double-star system a mere 1,000 light-years from Earth.

A sputtering offense and a bad defense is causing the Raiders to be outscored by nearly eight points per game after adjusting for strength of schedule.

(ESO) Astronomers have discovered a black hole lying just 1,000 light-years from Earth. The black hole is closer to our solar system than any other found to date and forms part of a triple system that can be seen with the naked eye. The astronomers found evidence for the invisible object by tracking its two companion stars using the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. They say this system could just be the tip of the iceberg.

Scientists have discovered the closest black hole to Earth, located just 1,000 light-years away.