Monster Black Hole Sucking Up Space

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»

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»

Astronomers puzzled by all-time heaviest 'small' black hole

(NEWSER) - A newly discovered stellar-mass black hole shatters the weight record for holes formed from dying stars—and defies explanation by current theories. Faced with its mysterious heft, astrophysicists can only conclude that stellar-mass black holes "can be much larger than we had realized," Space.com reports. More»

Astronomers say hefty gas giant is 100 times heavier than the sun

(NEWSER) - The most massive star yet discovered has been "weighed," astronomers say, and it tips the scales at a whopping 114 times the mass of the sun. The enormous star forms the bigger half of a rapidly orbiting binary system and it far outstrips both its companion star and the previous record holder—which weigh in at 84 and 83 solar masses, respectively. More»

(NEWSER) - Researchers are reporting the biggest stellar explosion ever recorded—a discovery which could shed light on how the universe was shaped. The star, 150 times more massive than the sun, went out with a bang 100 times more powerful than typical supernovas. Astronomers think the first stars after the Big Bang, which were also gargantuan, met similar fates. More»