Monştrii spaţiului: gaura neagră NGC 1277

O gaură neagră cu masa de miliarde de ori mai mare decât cea a Soarelui este obiect de studiu şi de discuţii între cercetători. Monstrul cu pricina pare a-şi fi părăsit galaxia mamă şi a se fi instalat într-o altă galaxie, după o călătorie cu o viteză vertiginoasă.

Mai mult, gaura neagră a luat cu ea şi „prizonieri”, stele capturate din galaxia iniţială.

Herschel gets to the bottom of black-hole jets

Astronomers using ESA's Herschel space observatory have detected emission from the base of black-hole jets for the first time. While studying the black-hole binary system GX 339-4 in a multi-wavelength observation campaign, they noticed changes in the source's X-ray and radio emissions signalling the onset of powerful jets being released from the black hole's vicinity. This prompted the astronomers to observe the source at far-infrared wavelengths with Herschel. As the first observation of emission from jets in a black-hole binary system at these wavelengths, the data have allowed the astronomers to probe the jets down to their base, where the far-infrared emission originates. Herschel's contribution to the multi-wavelength observations has proved a crucial addition to the understanding of black-hole jets and of the physical processes that take place very close to a black hole.

Black Holes Emerge from Collisions

A high-speed collision between particles can, theoretically, concentrate enough mass and kinetic energy in one place that a black hole can form. Physicists have considered this possibility for some time, but new dynamical simulations show that the amount of collisional energy needed is 2.4 times less than previously assumed. The authors, reporting in Physical Review Letters, explain that the colliding objects act like gravitational lenses on each other, focusing the energy into two light-trapping regions that eventually coalesce into a single black hole.

Supermassive black hole spins super-fast

In this artist's conception a supermassive black hole is surrounded by a hot accretion disk, while some inspiraling material is funneled into a wispy blue jet. New measurements show that the black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 1365 is spinning at close to the maximum possible rate. This suggests that it grew via "ordered accretion" rather than by swallowing random blobs of gas and stars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

Imagine a sphere more than 2 million miles across - eight times the distance from Earth to the Moon - spinning so fast that its surface is traveling at nearly the speed of light. Such an object exists: the supermassive black hole at the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 1365. 

Квазары помогли астрономам в изучении барионных осцилляций

Ученые из коллаборации BOSS (Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, Спектроскопический обзор барионных осцилляций) опубликовали результаты изучения темной энергии с помощью барионных акустических осцилляций. Статья исследователей подана в журнал Astronomy and Astrophysics, а ее препринт доступен на сайте arXiv.org.

Главная цель коллаборации BOSS - изучение так называемых барионных акустических осцилляций. Это акустические волны, образовавшиеся вскоре после рождения Вселенной, которые, как считается, отвечают за неравномерное распределение материи в космосе, а также анизотропию реликтового излучения.

Surprising 'Mini' Supermassive Black Hole Found in Unlikely Home

Using NASA's Chandra X-Ray space telescope, astronomers have discovered one of the smallest supermassive black holes in middle of an unlikely host galaxy.

The little monster was spotted in NGC 4178, a spiral galaxy about 55 million light-years from Earth that is quite flat and lacks a concentration or bulge of stars at its center.

Theoretical models had predicted that bulges are necessary for supermassive black holes to form and grow. But the new observations from NGC 4178 and four other bulgeless galaxies where black holes have previously been found challenge these assumptions and suggest more than one mechanism is at work in forming supermassive black holes. Researchers have speculated that these behemoths could feed on the disks of galaxies or the haloes of mysterious dark matter that surround galaxies instead of a cluster of stars at the center.

Abhas Mitra,singurul savant care a indraznit sa-i demonstreze lui Hawking ca teoria lui este gresita, marginalizat de lumea ştiinţifică

Abhas Mitra este seful sectiei de Astroficiza Teoretica de la Insitutul de cercetare Atomica Bhabha(BARC) din Mumbai, India. Dincolo de propriile sale cercetari, savantul a atras atentia lumii stiintei dupa ce a contrazis o teorie a lui Stephen Hawking.

In urma cu peste 30 de ani, celebrul fizician Stephen Hawking a publicat teoria sa despre Gaurile Negre din spatiu. Potrivit acesteia, ciudatele "gauri" distrugeau absolut tot ce intra in raza lor gravitationala, inclusiv lumina si informatia, adica baza materiei.

Super-Massive Black Hole Inflates Giant Bubble

Like symbiotic species, a galaxy and its central black hole lead intimately connected lives. The details of this relationship still pose many puzzles for astronomers.

Some black holes actively accrete matter. Part of this material do not fall into the black hole but is ejected in a narrow stream of particles, traveling at nearly the speed of light. When the stream slows down, it creates a tenuous bubble that can engulf the entire galaxy. Invisible to optical telescopes, the bubble is very prominent at low radio frequencies. The new International LOFAR Telescope - designed and built by ASTRON in an international collaboration - is ideally suited to detect this low frequency emission.

Monster Galaxy May Have Been Stirred Up By Black-hole Mischief

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a whopper of an elliptical galaxy that may have been puffed up by the actions of one or more black holes in its core.

Spanning a little more than one million light-years, the galaxy is about 10 times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. The bloated galaxy is a member of an unusual class of galaxies with a diffuse core filled with a fog of starlight where there would normally be a concentrated peak of light around a central black hole. Viewing the core is like seeing a city with no downtown, just houses sprinkled across a vast landscape.

Hyperfast Stars Point to Black Hole Slingshot

The black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is by far the nearest such supermassive gravitational monster to our sun, yet observing this space-time maelstrom is a challenge because it is 27,000 light-years away and obscured in visible light by intervening star clouds and dust lanes in the galactic plane.

The region of space profoundly warped by the black hole is a little more than a light-year across.

Quasar May Be Embedded in Unusually Dusty Galaxy

Hubble astronomers have looked at one of the most distant and brightest quasars in the universe and are surprised by what they did not see: the underlying host galaxy of stars feeding the quasar. The best explanation is that the galaxy is shrouded in so much dust that the stars are completely hidden everywhere. Astronomers believe that the James Webb Space Telescope will reveal the galaxy.

All but the very first galaxies contain some dust-the early universe was dust-free until the first generation of stars started making dust through nuclear fusion. As these stars aged and burned out, they filled interstellar space with this dust as they lost their atmospheres.

Scientists ponder black hole behaviour

SCIENTISTS are a step closer to understanding how supermassive black holes behave after taking a photo of the phenomena, showing that it blasts a jet of material similar to a fighter jet's afterburner exhaust.

Curtin University researcher Leith Godfrey said the jets of material needed to be understood if scientists were to understand how galaxies formed and grew.

Can You Make a Laser from a Black Hole?

Is there any object more alluringly mysterious in the cosmos than black holes? How about their mirror image, white holes? Put the two together, and you just might have an intriguing concept for a unique kind of laser -- one that a team of Scottish physicists think they might actually be able to build in the lab, using analog versions of white holes and black holes.

A black hole can be visualized as a large funnel with a long throat. If you “cut” the throat and join it to a second black hole that has been flipped over (a white hole), you get an hourglass shape, with a thin filament connecting each end. Technically it's known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge (named for Albert Einstein and his collaborator, Nathan Rosen), an early theoretical incarnation of a wormhole.

Black hole surprise in ancient star cluster

Astronomers have made the unexpected discovery of two black holes inside an ancient cluster of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

The research, published in the prestigious journal Nature, describes the detection of two black holes that are about 10 to 20 times heavier than our Sun in the globular cluster named M22.

Black holes, so dense that even light can't escape them, are what is left when a massive star reaches the end of its life and collapses in on itself.

Black Holes Weigh the Possibility of a Massive Photon

Black holes don’t usually get pushed around, but a very lightweight particle can theoretically stop a rotating black hole by setting off a so-called “black-hole bomb.” New calculations reported in Physical Review Letters show that photons, or photonlike particles, could be considered bomb-making material if they have a mass. A massive photon is not theoretically ruled out, but it would have implications for the dispersion of light and the existence of magnetic monopoles. However, the mere existence of spinning (unbombed) black holes constrains this possibility, thus allowing the authors to put the most stringent limit yet on the mass of the photon.

Астрономы впервые измерили основание джета черной дыры

Ученые получили рекордно четкое изображение сверхмассивной черной дыры в центре галактики M87 и измерили основание ее джета. Работа опубликована в журнале Science, а ее краткое описание можно прочитать на сайтах Массачусетского технологического института, NatureNews и ScienceNow.

Исследование проводилось с помощью четырех радиотелескопов, расположенных в Калифорнии, Аризоне и на Гавайях. В ходе работы они были фактически объединены в единый прибор - интерферометр со сверхдлинным базисом. Благодаря тщательной настройке радиотелескопов, ученым удалось рассмотреть близкие окрестности черной дыры с беспрецедентной точностью.

NASA descoperă milioane de noi quasari

Telescopul WISE al NASA a cercetat de două ori Universul în timpul misiunii sale de 14 luni, generând un număr impresionant de date. În urma analizei acestor date, astronomii au scos la iveală una dintre cele mai impresionante descoperiri de până acum.

Este vorba de existenţa a 2,5 milioane de găuri negre răspândite prin cosmos – de aproximativ trei ori mai multe decât cele descoperite de cercetări precedente.

Black Hole Roundup

Black holes, black holes, and more black holes. In the past few weeks I’ve been thinking, talking, and even dreaming about black holes (yes really, somnolent thoughts seem well suited to these fantastic objects). Mostly this has been an effect of my book Gravity’s Engines hitting the shelves, but it’s also because barely a day seems to go by without some new piece of astrophysical research on these most dense and fantastic objects. Here’s a quick round up of a couple items.

A new survey containing the locations of about 2.5 million supermassive black holes was released a couple weeks back that used the full sky map obtained with NASA’s WISE (Wide-Field, Infrared Survey Explorer) mission to track down the pinpoints of thermal radiation from dust enshrouded holes in distant galaxies.

China Focus: Timeline for China's space research revealed

A senior Chinese astronomer on Friday revealed a timeline for China's planned program of space research. In an interview with Xinhua, Zhang Shuangnan, an astrophysicist at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said key developments will include China launching its first space telescope around 2015 and the country's space station being completed around 2020.

Speaking at the sidelines of the 28th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, being held in Beijing from Aug. 20-31, he said the space station will become a platform to study black holes, dark matter and dark energy.

Ciocnirile găurilor negre şi spaţiu-timpul

Au atras uriaşele găuri negre primele galaxii împreună sau au acestea au apărut în interiorul acestor galaxii? E un mister ce durează de mult timp. O nouă analiză a undelor gravitaţionale generate de coliziunea găurilor negre ar putea dezvălui răspunsul.

Majoritatea marilor galaxii pe care le vedem au găuri negre supermasive în centrele lor. Atunci când aceste galaxii se ciocnesc, găurile negre fuzionează într-una singură mai mare şi mai masivă, conform teoriei. Cu toate acestea, observaţiile găurii negre finale nu au adus nici o informaţie despre găurile negre originale.