supermassive black hole – Astronomy Now

Dust-choked doughnut detected around gargantuan black hole

5 April 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have made the first direct observation of a dust-choked torus surrounding a supermassive black hole powering an active galactic nucleus.

Seeing matter sucked into a black hole at 30 percent lightspeed

20 September 2018 Astronomy Now

For the first time, astronomers have observed dust being sucked directly into a supermassive black hole, evidence of “chaotic accretion” that may have helped supermassive holes rapidly gain mass in the early universe.

Most distant radio galaxy, host to a voracious black hole, is found

7 August 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have detected the most distant known radio galaxy, a surprising discovery given the supermassive black hole powering the galaxy was actively accreting gas and dust when the Universe was in its infancy.

Epic campaign confirms relativity near supermassive black hole

26 July 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers tracking a star passing close to the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way have detected relativistic gravitational redshift in light reaching Earth.

Dust clouds may explain emissions from active galactic nuclei

18 June 2018 Astronomy Now

Changes in the light emerging from active galactic nuclei, powered by supermassive black holes, may be explained by clouds of intervening dust that can dim and redden the radiation, eliminating the need for more exotic explanations.

‘Monster’ black hole consuming the Sun’s mass every two days

15 May 2018 Astronomy Now

Australian astronomers have found one of the fastest-growing super-massive black holes in the known universe, a monster 20-billion-solar-mass quasi-stellar object consuming the equivalent of the Sun’s mass every two days.

Radio echoes of a black hole feasting on a doomed star

19 March 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers studying emissions from a black hole have found a relationship between the strength of X-rays generated as material on the way into the hole is heated and the strength of jets blasting energetic particles back into space.

Astronomers shed light on formation of black holes and galaxies

28 December 2017 Astronomy Now

Stars forming in galaxies appear to be influenced by the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, but the mechanism of how that happens has not been clear to astronomers until now.

Cosmic filament probes our galaxy’s giant black hole

21 December 2017 Astronomy Now

The centre of our galaxy has been intensely studied for many years, but it still harbors surprises for scientists. A snake-like structure lurking near our galaxy’s supermassive black hole is the latest discovery to tantalise astronomers.

Found: The most distant supermassive black hole ever observed

6 December 2017 Astronomy Now

A team of astronomers have discovered the most-distant supermassive black hole ever observed. It resides in a luminous quasar and its light reaches us from when the Universe was only 5 percent of its current age — just 690 million years after the Big Bang.