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    XRISM gives sharpest-ever glimpse at growth of a rapidly-spinning black hole

    January 6, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image: Artist’s rendering of the innermost regions around the supermassive black hole in the active galaxy MCG-6-30-15.  The event horizon (black region in center) marks the boundary between the black hole and the surrounding accretion disk, where the gas orbits at nearly the speed of light before plunging in. The extreme gravity and spin of the black hole combine to warp the shape of both the event horizon and the accretion disk as predicted by general relativity, even bending the light from the back side of the disk up into our line of sight. The wind driven from the innermost regions of this system is depicted by outflowing streamlines.  The component of this wind along our line of sight absorbs some of the X-rays emitted from the innermost disk. 

    Astronomers have obtained the sharp...

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    The monster hiding in plain sight: JWST reveals cosmic shapeshifter in the early universe

    December 14, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The monster hiding in plain sight: JWST reveals cosmic shapeshifter in the early universe
    Covering a tiny patch of sky spanning less than a tenth of the full moon, the famous “Hubble eXtreme Deep Field” image revealed thousands of galaxies, including objects from the universe infancy. The James Webb Space Telescope observed the same region over three years. U of A researchers zoomed in on the galaxy reported in this study (inset), captured when the universe was only 800 million years old. The team found that even at its young age, it already harbored a supermassive black hole, shrouded in dust. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Östlin, P. G. Perez-Gonzalez, J. Melinder, the JADES Collaboration, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

    In a glimpse of the early universe, astronomers have observed a galaxy as it appeared just 800 million years after the Big Bang—a cosmic Jekyll and Hyde that loo...

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    Black hole blast outshines 10 trillion Suns

    November 9, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A distant supermassive black hole has set a new cosmic record, unleashing the brightest flare ever seen as it devoured a gigantic star that wandered too close. A colossal black hole 10 billion light-years away has been caught devouring one of the universe’s biggest stars, unleashing a flare 30 times brighter than any seen before. The flare, detected by Caltech’s ZTF, likely marks a tidal disruption event — when a star is shredded by a black hole’s gravity.

    The Universe’s most massive stars typically end their lives in spectacular explosions known as supernovae before collapsing into black holes. But one enormous star seems to have met a very different fate...

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    Black holes might hold the key to a 60-year cosmic mystery

    October 8, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Could black holes help explain high-energy cosmic radiation?

    Scientists may have finally uncovered the mystery behind ultra-high-energy cosmic rays — the most powerful particles known in the universe. A team from NTNU suggests that colossal winds from supermassive black holes could be accelerating these particles to unimaginable speeds. These winds, moving at half the speed of light, might not only shape entire galaxies but also fling atomic nuclei across the cosmos with incredible energy.

    The universe is full of different types of radiation and particles that can be observed here on Earth. This includes photons across the entire range of the electromagnetic spectrum, from the lowest radio frequencies all the way to the highest-energy gamma rays...

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