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NEWS ABOUT: black hole

Coming Soon: First-Ever Picture of a Black Hole

It will take an array of 50 telescopes to spot its shadow

(Newser) - How do you photograph a black hole, which is normally invisible due to the fact that its gravity is so intense it pulls in even light ? You probably won't be surprised to hear that it's never been done before—and that to do it for the first... More »

Local Black Hole About to Chow Down

Milky Way's super-massive black hole to devour gas cloud

(Newser) - The super-massive black hole at the heart of our galaxy is about to have a feast—and astronomers think it's going to be messy. A giant gas cloud has been spotted approaching the black hole, which lies some 27,000 light years from Earth. Scientists believe the cloud will... More »

Vast New Black Holes Shatter Record

They're 10 times the size of our solar system

(Newser) - Ready to have your mind boggled by the awe-inspiring scale of cosmological phenomena? Well boggle away: Astronomers have discovered two black holes bigger than any glimpsed before, with one weighing in as much as 21 billion suns, the New York Times reports. The other clocks in at a mere 9.... More »

Astronomers Catch Black Hole Swallowing Star

It's the first time they've witnessed the phenomenon as it happens

(Newser) - While scientists have seen the aftermath of stars ripped apart by black holes before, they say they've finally seen the galactic violence in the act for the first time, reports the LA Times . The Earth-orbiting Swift observatory noticed an unusual radiation spike coming from a constellation 4.5 billion... More »

Black Hole Spotted Feasting on Passing Star

Gamma-ray burst leads astronomers to 'feeding frenzy'

(Newser) - The super massive black hole at the heart of a galaxy in the Draco constellation has been caught in the middle of a meal—and it's a messy eater. Scientists analyzing an unusually long-lasting burst of gamma rays from the constellation 4 billion light years away believe they are... More »

NASA: Nearby Black Hole Is Enormous

M87 is bigger than six billion suns

(Newser) - NASA has taken new measurements of a black hole that’s just one galaxy over—and the results are staggering. The black hole, known as M87, is so big that you could fit roughly 6.6 billion of our suns inside it. Black holes that huge are a rare find,... More »

Black Hole 'Hurled' From Galaxy

Object with the mass of a billion suns spotted moving at high speed

(Newser) - Astronomers believe they have spotted a supermassive black hole being flung out of its galaxy. Supermassive black holes—which have a mass roughly a billion times that of the sun—are usually found at the center of galaxies, but this one is traveling away from the core of its galaxy... More »

Monster Black Hole Sucking Up Space

(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... More »

Space Blob Stumps Scientists

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... More »

Scientists Say Black Hole Lies at Center of Galaxy

Stars orbit around central nucleus 4M times heavier than sun

(Newser) - A giant black hole sits at the core of our galaxy, say astronomers who participated in a 16-year German study that monitored the movements of 28 stars circling the center of the Milky Way. “Beyond any reasonable doubt,” the stars orbit a core concentration of mass 4 million... More »

Hawking To Retire From Cambridge Post

(Newser) - Stephen Hawking will retire from his chair at Cambridge University at the end of this academic year, the Telegraph reports. But the esteemed physicist will continue working at the college in an emeritus position. Cambridge requires profs to step down when they reach 67, and Hawking’s birthday is in... More »

Dutch Teacher Discovers Green 'Space Ghost'

Accidental find is hot gas ball reflecting far-off galactic light

(Newser) - A Dutch schoolteacher earned her moment in the sun by discovering a cosmic ball of gas some have labeled a space “ghost,” NPR reports. Hanny van Arkel, 25, was working as a volunteer with a galaxy-classifying website when she came upon what “looked like a regular galaxy... More »

Black Mini Still Has Hole Lotta Power

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... More »

Particle Collider Prompts Doomsday Suit

Device could spark fatal black hole, claimants say

(Newser) - A particle smasher in Switzerland could suck up Earth and possibly the whole universe, a US lawsuit claims. The suit warns that the $8 billion Large Hadron Collider near Geneva could spark a matter-sucking black hole or a "strangelet" that turns our planet into "strange matter." But... More »

Black Hole Smashes Record

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 »

Scientists Stumped by Blast From Outer Space

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... More »

Enormous Hole Found in Cosmos

Scientists spot unexpected void a billion light years wide

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a mysterious gigantic hole in the universe, reports Space.com. Unlike black holes, created by super dense material, this hole is devoid of matter. It measures nearly a billion light years wide and is 10 billion light years from earth. The hole was discovered by examining input... More »

Destroy Earth: 10 Easy Methods

Get your evil on with these surefire ways to obliterate the planet

(Newser) - Destroying life on earth is one thing; obliterating the planet entirely is quite another. Bring out your inner supervillain with any of these 10 strategies.
  1. Hurl the earth into the sun.
  2. Release a Von Neumann machine beneath the earth's crust.
  3. Smash something large (such as Mars) into the earth.
  4. Eject
... More »

King of Supernovas Sheds Light on Early Stars

(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... More »

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