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black hole

SPACE: Are We Wrong About Black Holes?

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black hole - pixabay

If you were to dive into a black hole (something we would not recommend), you”d likely find a singularity, or an infinitely small and dense point, at the center. Or that”s what physicists have always thought. But now a pair of scientists suggests that some black holes may not be black holes at all. Instead, they may be weird objects chock-full of dark energy — the mysterious force thought to be pushing at the bounds of the universe, causing it to expand at an ever-increasing rate. “If what we thought were black holes are actually objects without singularities, then the … Read more

SPACE: Where Do Black Holes Go?

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black hole - pixabay

So there you are, about to leap into a black hole. What could possibly await should — against all odds — you somehow survive? Where would you end up and what tantalizing tales would you be able to regale if you managed to clamor your way back? The simple answer to all of these questions is, as Professor Richard Massey explains, “Who knows?” As a Royal Society research fellow at the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, Massey is fully aware that the mysteries of black holes run deep. “Falling through an event horizon is literally passing beyond the … Read more

SPACE: Black Holes are “Bald,” Not “Hairy”

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black hole - pixabay

Back in 2017, a gravitational wave rang across Earth like the clear tone of a bell. It stretched and squished every person, ant and scientific instrument on the planet as it passed through our region of space. Now, researchers have gone back and studied that wave, and found hidden data in it — data that help confirm a decades-old astrophysics idea. That 2017 wave was a big deal: For the first time, astronomers had a tool that could detect and record it as it passed, known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). That first wave was the result, they … Read more

sPACE: Could Black Holes Be Life Creators?

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black hole - pixabay

Black holes are engines of destruction on a cosmic scale, but they may also be the bringers of life. New research on supermassive black holes suggests that the radiation they emit during feeding frenzies can create biomolecular building blocks and even power photosynthesis. The upshot? Far more worlds roaming the Milky Way and beyond could be suitable to life, the researchers speculated. For their new study, published May 24 in the Astrophysical Journal, scientists created computer models to look at the radiating disks of gas and dust called active galactic nuclei, or AGN, that swirl around supermassive black holes. Some … Read more

SPACE: Astronomers Identify “Chimneys” in the Galactic Center

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Milky Way Chimneys

The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy is a bit like the hearth at the center of a cozy pub. It’s a bright, warm gathering place around which all the quotidian life of the Milky Way swirls — and, according to a new study published today (Mar. 20) in the journal Nature, it might even have a chimney or two. In a recent study of the X-ray emissions seething out of the Milky Way’s galactic center, researchers noticed two unusual structures that have never been described before. Twin columns of superhot, X-ray-emitting plasma appeared to be billowing … Read more

SPACE: Scientists Spot a Medium-Sized Black Hole Wandering the Galaxy

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Scientists think that they’ve spotted a rare, Jupiter-size black hole casually strolling through the Milky Way galaxy. Of course, scientists can’t see any black holes directly — but new research tracking a celestial cloud structure saw strange behavior that may have been caused by just such an invisible object. That data came courtesy of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a set of 66 telescopes scattered across the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. “When I checked the ALMA data for the first time, I was really excited because the observed gas showed obvious orbital motions, which strongly suggest an invisible … Read more

SPACE: Black Holes Can Raise the Dead (And Then Kill Them Again)

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Zombie Star - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Adding a cosmic “Walking Dead” twist to the most morbid of all space objects, scientists have found that some black holes could bring dead “zombie” stars back to life — and then destroy them. Black holes are invisible “objects” in space where the gravity is so strong that it sucks everything into it, even light. All of the black holes that astronomers have found so far are either superbig — as in hundreds of thousands and even billions of times the mass of our sun — or on the smallish side, as in, say, less than 100 times the mass … Read more

SPACE: Could Black Holes Reverse Time?

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As a massive star collapses into a black hole, it sends out a brilliant SOS signal in the form of ultrabright gamma-ray bursts. Now, scientists have found something very peculiar about those mysterious signals: They seem to reverse time. Well, sort of. A new study, published Aug. 13 in The Astrophysical Journal, has found that these gamma-ray bursts are time-reversed, meaning the brilliant light wave is spit out one way and then sent out again in the opposite order. The researchers said they have no idea what’s causing these time-reversed gamma-ray signals, but they added that the physics around black … Read more

SPACE: Are Black Holes Actually Colliding Wormholes?

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When two wormholes collide, they could produce ripples in space-time that ricochet off themselves. Future instruments could detect these gravitational “echoes,” providing evidence that these hypothetical tunnels through space-time actually exist, a new paper suggests. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has already detected space-time ripples, called gravitational waves, emanating from merging black holes — discoveries that led to the Nobel Prize in 2017. But while LIGO’s detection was just one of many observations supporting the existence of black holes, these exotic objects still pose theoretical problems. For instance, they seem to be inconsistent with the laws of quantum mechanics. … Read more

SCIENCE: Stephen Hawking’s Family Will Beam His Voice Toward a Black Hole

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Stephen Hawking’s family plans to broadcast a recording of his voice toward a black hole while his ashes are interred at Westminster Abbey, according to a report in the Telegraph. Hawking’s most important work was on the structure of black holes. The famous physicist showed in 1974 that, contrary to popular belief at the time, black holes do in fact emit radiation. So it seems appropriate that a bit of radiation associated with Einstein will make its way back into a black hole. [Stephen Hawking: A Physics Icon Remembered in Photos] His daughter, Lucy Hawking, told the British press in … Read more