Supermassive black holes

A magnificent black hole with an allocation disk and a cosmic hill of matter.

Supermassive black holes defy physics to become cosmic giants

Researchers have linked X-ray emissions from 21 distant quasars to the rapid growth of supermassive black holes in the early universe
This image taken by Webb shows an ancient quasar (in the red circle) with fewer neighboring galaxies than expected. Credit: Christina Eilers/EIGER team

The Webb Space Telescope discovers quasars where they shouldn't exist

Astronomers have used the Web to discover individual ancient quasars of uncertain origin
Artist's rendering of the heaviest pair of supermassive black holes: Using archival data from the Gemini North Telescope, a team of astronomers has measured the heaviest pair of supermassive black holes ever found. The merger of two supermassive black holes is a long-predicted but never-observed phenomenon. This pair provides insight into why such an event seems so unlikely in the universe. Credit: NOIR LAB

Astronomers have measured the heaviest pair of black holes ever found

Data from the Gemini North Telescope provide a possible explanation for the halting of the merger of a pair of supermassive black holes at the center of a galaxy
19 spiral galaxies imaged by the Webb Space Telescope. Courtesy of the European Space Agency and NASA

Web shows amazing structures in 19 nearby spiral galaxies

These are relatively close galaxies that face the Earth. The research reveals new details about the way galaxies are formed
Impressively, a pair of supermassive black holes (top left) emit gravitational waves that propagate through the fabric of space-time. These gravitational waves compress and stretch the trajectories of radio waves that emit pulsars (in white). By carefully measuring the radio waves, a team of scientists recently discovered for the first time the gravitational wave background of the universe. Credit: Aurore Simonnet for the NANOGrav Collaboration

Noisier than expected: Gravitational waves from supermassive black hole mergers "heard" for the first time

NANOGrav Discovers Stronger Gravitational Waves Than Ever, Apparently Created by Pairs of Supermassive Black Holes