Hubble Spots Collisions and Cosmic Disarray At the Center of Black Hole

Medicine & Technology May 30, 2015

When it comes to high-speed collisions, nobody here on Earth has anything on black holes. Astronomers have witnessed a new first: two high-speed knots of matter colliding in a sort of rear-end impact. They saw this after creating a time-lapse video of a super-speed jet of plasma as it shot out of a supermassive black hole. The knots of matter were inside the black hole until it blasted them out-and into each other.

Finding the Most Luminous Stars In the Sky

May 23, 2015

NASA has seen the most luminous galaxy ever discovered using its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. The remote galaxy glows with enough light to rival 300 trillion suns.

Rare Quasar Quartet is the First of Its Kind

May 16, 2015

Imagine winning the Powerball jackpot-more than once. You may have a sense of how a team of astronomers feels after their discovery of a set of four quasars at the visible universe's edge. These brilliant beacons of light are typically spread far apart, but this quartet exists shoved together in only 650,000 light-years of space-equivalent to around a quarter of the distance between our closest big neighbor galaxy Andromeda and the Milky Way.

Ghosts of Quasars Past—Hubble Telescope Reveals Phantom of Eight Galaxies

Apr 03, 2015

In a new series of images captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, researchers with the US space agency discovered an eery green hue spiraling and braiding shapes around eight active galaxies. And while the wisps of glowing structures “don’t fit a single pattern”, lead researcher of the study, Bill Keel believes that the bright green lights may reveal the high energy at the core of these eight galaxies.

Could Dark Matter and Black Holes Cause the Swirl In Your Galaxy?

Feb 21, 2015

Ever seen a snapshot of the universe and wondered just how and what makes the beautiful swirling shapes that modern telescopes now let us see? Imagery of the Horsehead Nebula, the Pillars of Creation, and even the Rose Galaxies have captivated researchers and the public for decades, but finding exactly what causes space dust, planets and stars to conform in such elegant forms has often eluded astronomers studying the infinite wonders of space. But a new study conducted by researchers with the Harvard University Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) reveals that the connection between collections of stars and the elliptical shapes of galaxies may have something to do with dark matter and the presence of black holes at the center of every galactic mass.

‘G2’ Gas Ball Survives Black Hole, and Researchers Say They Now Know Why

Nov 04, 2014

For years, astronomers have pondered the origins and the contents of the mysterious G2 object floating in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Drifting towards the galaxy’s supermassive black hole, the passing cloud was thought to be composed entirely of hydrogen gas, giving it the nickname “G2”. But earlier this past summer researchers found that G2 had come in close contact with the black hole, and it survived—leading them on a new theory as to what the mysterious object could be.