Enormous Hole Found in Cosmos

Cosmic blob from the dawn of time confounds theories on early universe

(NEWSER) - A gigantic blob at the edge of the universe is forcing scientists to rethink their ideas on how galaxies form, reports the BBC. The radiation-emitting object 12.9 billion light years away is one of the most distant—and consequently oldest—things ever seen by astronomers, and is much bigger than anything they had expected to exist that soon after the Big Bang. More»

(NEWSER) - A monstrous black hole near the center of a distant galaxy is sucking up stars, gas and dust, and spitting out baby stars, NASA scientists have discovered. The black hole is 100 million times the mass of the sun, reports the Telegraph. It lies at the center of a galaxy 50 million light years away known as NGC-1097, and has been photographed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in California. More»

15-mile-wide black hole is smallest ever found

(NEWSER) - Astronomers have spotted the smallest black hole ever discovered, Reuters reports. It is just 15 miles across—the size of a city—but still has a pull strong enough to "stretch your body into a strand of spaghetti," said a NASA researcher. The relative pipsqueak weighs about as much as four suns, while black holes often weigh billions of times more. More»

Mysterious pulse could be sign of black hole evaporating or supernovas colliding

(NEWSER) - A bizarre burst from outer space has scientists talking black holes and colliding stars, Physorg reports — and may even help us "determine the amount of material in intergalactic space," one researcher says. The radio waves, which were measured in milliseconds, might be a blast from 2 superdense neutron stars or the "last gasp" of a dying black hole. More»

Rapid discovery of planets outside our solar system ups odds one has liquid water

(NEWSER) - Astronomers who've spotted 28 new planets in the past year are gaining confidence that other solar systems may be able to support life like ours. One researcher estimated that there are probably "tens of billions" of planets with habitable conditions, most important of which is hospitality to water. More»