Category Astronomy/Space

An international research team reports that the activity of black holes can be observed as visible light during outbursts, and that flickering light emerging from gases surrounding black holes is a direct indicator of this. The team’s results, published in Nature, indicate that optical rays and not just X-rays provide reliable observational data for black hole activity. Credit: Eiri Ono/Kyoto University

Black hole activity can be observed via visible rays. All you need is a 20 cm telescope to observe a nearby, active black hole. An international team reports the activity of black holes can be observed as visible light during outbursts, and that flickering light emerging from gases surrounding black holes is a direct indicator of this...

Spiral galaxy NGC 5195 and the X-ray arcs Schlegel’s team identified. Credit: Eric Schlegel, the University of Texas at San Antonio

Researchers used Chandra X-Ray Observatory to identify a powerful galactic blast produced by a giant black hole about 26 million light years from Earth. The black hole is the nearest supermassive black hole to Earth that is currently undergoing such violent outbursts. Messier51 system of galaxies contains a large spiral galaxy, NGC5194, colliding with a smaller companion galaxy, NGC5195.

“Just as powerful storms here on Earth impact their environments, so too do the ones we see out in space,” Schlegel said. “This black hole is blasting hot gas and particles into its surroundings that must play an important role in the evolution of the galaxy...

Schematic representation of the nonlocal electron interference experiment. A dc current is driven from the upper left to the lower left contact. A nonlocal, oscillating voltage is measured between the upper and lower right contacts due the magnetic-field induced single-electron interference in the 500 nanometer ring in the middle. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Twente

Nanotechnologists have discovered a new fundamental property of electrical currents in very small metal circuits. They show how electrons can spread out over the circuit like waves and cause interference effects at places where no electrical current is driven.

The geometry of the circuit plays a key role in this so called nonlocal effect...

Bow shocks thought to mark the paths of massive, speeding stars are highlighted in these images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wyoming

Astronomers are finding dozens of the fastest stars in our galaxy with the help of images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. When some speedy, massive stars plow through space, they can cause material to stack up in front of them in the same way that water piles up ahead of a ship. Called bow shocks, these dramatic, arc-shaped features in space are leading researchers to uncover massive, so-called runaway stars.

“Some stars get the boot when their companion star explodes in a supernova, and others can get kicked ou...