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MIT astronomers observed the elusive starlight surrounding some of the earliest quasars in the universe. The findings may shed light on how the earliest supermassive black holes became so massive despite having a relatively short amount of cosmic time in which to grow.
A previously quiet black hole at the center of a distant galaxy has suddenly erupted, giving off plumes of gas every 8.5 days. These “hiccups” suggest black hole accretion disks may be more varied than previously thought, possibly containing other black holes, and even entire stars.
Scientists say astronomers’ best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence of carbon dioxide in their atmospheres.
Astronomers detected an extremely bright gamma-ray burst (GRB), the most powerful type of explosion known in the universe. It’s the second-brightest GRB so far identified, likely originating from two merging neutron stars.
Matthew Evans and Salvatore Vitale describe the Cosmic Explorer — a next-generation gravitational-wave observatory that is expected to pick up ripples in space-time from as far back as the early universe.