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Black holes at the centers of galaxies

This image shows the region of the sky where the record-breaking quasar, J0529-4351, is located. Using the European Southern Observatory's Giant Telescope (VLT) in Chile, this quasar was found to be the most luminous object known in the universe so far. This image was created from images that are part of the Computerized Sky Survey 2, while the smaller image shows the location of the quasar in an image from the Dark Energy Survey. Credit: ESO/Computerized Sky Survey 2/Dark Energy Survey

The brightest object in the universe has been discovered - powered by a massive sun-swallowing black hole

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The material being pulled toward this disk-shaped black hole emits so much energy that J0529-4351 is more than 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun
A jet emitted from a black hole at the center of a galaxy. Illustration: shutterstock

Why supermassive black holes keep growing at the centers of massive galaxies

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Researchers from the Hebrew University and France discovered that below the critical size there are factors that prevent black holes from swallowing gas and growing, in galaxies with a mass of more than ten million suns, the attraction is large enough to pull more and more material from the galaxy to the black hole at its center
A black hole photographed in polarized light, revealing its magnetic fields. The Event Horizon Telescope Partnership (EHT)

The magnetic field of a black hole was photographed for the first time

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The scientists observed the black hole in the center of the galaxy M87 that was photographed about three years ago by optical means, and now the huge magnetic field around it has been photographed which reveals what happens when matter approaches the speed of light and part of it is swallowed up by the black hole. The writer is one of the scientists who participated in the project
A star is torn apart by a black hole and emits jets of gas and radiation. Image: NASA/JPL

Stars engulfed by a black hole release energy long after the process begins

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Dr. Asaf Haresh of the Hebrew University revealed a new and surprising phenomenon concerning the destruction of stars by black holes* so far no researcher has been able to prove that such flashes of radio radiation exist, a relatively long time after the destruction of the star. The research even proves the power of the event and the partial understanding of the scientific world on the subject. The research was published in Nature Astronomy
Black holes collide in close proximity to a supermassive black hole. Image: CUNY

Astronomers find evidence of colliding black holes that emitted light

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merging galaxies. Image: shutterstock

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way may have a friend

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An illustration incorporating the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy - the first imaged by astronomers. Illustration: shutterstock

Why is photographing the black hole such a special event?

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A first-of-its-kind photograph of a black hole at the center of the galaxy M87 by the EHT telescope array, which combines eight large telescopes from around the world. Photo: ESO

A first-of-its-kind photograph of a black hole at the center of a galaxy has been achieved thanks to an international collaboration

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A blazar fires a jet of cosmic rays and neutrinos towards Earth and is absorbed by the IceCube facility at the South Pole. Figure IceCube/NASA

A collaboration between the neutrino detector and a space telescope led to the identification of a source producing cosmic rays for the first time

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Imaging of the quasar J1342+0928, the active galactic halo that contains at its center a supermassive black hole, with a mass 800 million times that of our Sun, that is gobbling up a lot of material from a hot disk surrounding it. Source: Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science.

The most distant supermassive black hole to date has been discovered

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A simulation of a supermassive black hole with an accretion disk around it. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

A method that significantly improves the measurement of the mass of black holes in the centers of galaxies

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What could cause the most powerful flash of light ever observed?

The strongest flash of light ever observed in space - probably the result of a star "falling" into a black hole

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An artist's rendering of how the "nearly exposed" supermassive black hole was formed. Credit: Bill Sexton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Close galactic encounter leaves supermassive black hole 'almost exposed'

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Artist's impression of a star being pulled into a black hole and destroyed (left), and the black hole later emitting a "jet" of plasma made up of the debris from the star's destruction. Illustration: Amadeo Bacher, Johns Hopkins University.

For the first time - watching the entire process of a star being swallowed by a black hole until the plasma jets are emitted

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An active galactic nucleus and jets of current coming out of the black hole at its center. NASA / Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital

A black hole is 30 times larger than the maximum size that would be expected for it based on the mass of the galaxy at its center

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Researchers from the University of Oklahoma and China examined observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and discovered two massive black holes in the quasar Mercarian 231. Photo: Space Telescope Science Facility, Baltimore, Maryland.

For the first time, two huge black holes were discovered in the galaxy, and it is estimated that they will collide

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Illustration of the galaxy and the giant black hole at its center. The black hole converts some of the matter it absorbs into energetic radiation (shaded in blue), while the galaxy continues to form new stars (purple areas). [Image credit: Michael Helfenbein/Yale University - M. Helfenbein / Yale University]

The black hole that was ahead of its time

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A small black hole accreting mass. Compressed and cold gas (in green) moves towards the center of the star cluster (red X). The stars (in yellow) determine through their gravity the random and unstable trajectory of the black hole through the gas cloud (black line)

The diner at the edge of the universe

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The galaxy NGC 5548. Photo: Hubble Space Telescope

Black hole eating disorders

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Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 3081. Photo: European Space Agency and NASA, R. Botha - University of Alabama.

The Hubble Space Telescope reveals: stars are born around black holes in the centers of galaxies

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Combining separate observations of the Hubble space telescopes in visible light, and Chandra and Newton in X-radiation on the same quasar made it possible to distinguish more details. X-ray image: NASA/CXC/University of Michigan RCReis et al. Optical NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute

Hubble, Chandra and Newton were able to measure the spin of a distant black hole for the first time

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A radio telescope image of galaxy 4C12.50 which is about 1.5 billion light years from Earth. The diagram shows the location details at the edge of a fast jet of particles, where the huge cloud of gas (in yellow-orange colors) is pushed by the jet. Figure: Morganti et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Massive black holes limit the growth of galaxies

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Andromeda's double core. Photo: Hubble Space Telescope. The large photograph of the Andromeda Galaxy is from the University of Alaska Anchorage, 2001

Hubble photographed the double nucleus of the Andromeda galaxy

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Artist's rendering of stars moving into the central region of an elliptical galaxy hosting a supermassive black hole (Gemini Observatory/Aura. Image: Lynette Cook, for UC Berkeley)

Record-breaking black holes discovered in massive galaxies

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The main image was taken with the Chandra X-ray Space Telescope (in blue) and Hubble Space Telescope optical images (in gold) of the spiral galaxy NGC 3393. Meanwhile, in the small box we see the central region of NGC 3393 in the Chandra image alone.

A galaxy with a pair of black holes at its center

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