Jun 16 2011

Hungry Black Holes Lurk at Edge of the Universe

13 billion light-years away, at the very edge of our observable universe, supermassive black holes lurk inside their galactic hosts, feeding.

Jan 12 2011

Obese Black Hole Lurks in Our Backyard

Tag: Black Hole,Galaxies,QuasarsIrene Klotz @ 10:30 pm
Weighing in at the equivalent of 6.6 billion of our suns, this behemoth is located in a galaxy that neighbors our own.

Nov 04 2010

Dead Quasar Leaves Ghost Behind

Tag: Black Hole,Galaxies,Quasars,UniverseLarry O'Hanlon @ 3:55 pm
One of the most ravenous beasts in the universe has died, leaving behind an optical echo of its former self.

Jul 20 2010

The Quasar That Acts Like a Reverse Gravitational Lens

Tag: Astrophysics,Galaxies,Quasars,TelescopesJennifer Ouellette @ 9:21 am
The first known case of a quasar acting as a gravitational lens has been discovered, magnifying a distant galaxy and splitting it into two distinct images. Jennifer Ouellette chats with the discoverers.

Jun 09 2010

Sloan Spots One Hundred Thousand Black Hole Behemoths

Tag: Quasars,TelescopesNicole Gugliucci @ 11:20 am
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has created a database of millions of objects for astronomers to study including 105,783 quasars -- the active centers of distant galaxies with supermassive black holes lurking inside.

Apr 16 2010

No Time Dilation for Distant Quasars?

Tag: Astronomy,Cosmology,Physics,QuasarsNicole Gugliucci @ 5:39 am
Distant quasars are acting very strange: they're not acting strange. Usually the massive black holes powering these active galactic cores should exhibit some time dilation, but the most distant quasars don't.

Apr 14 2010

Seeing in a New Light (and Searching for Extraterrestrials) with LOFAR

Tag: Alien Life,Astronomy,Quasars,SETI,TelescopesNicole Gugliucci @ 12:16 am
A new radio telescope is under construction, consisting of 44 stations spread across Europe. Not only will LOFAR peer deep into the cosmos with unprecedented detail, it will also listen out for ET's transmissions.

Mar 18 2010

Primordial ‘Dust Free’ Monsters Lurk at the Edge of the Universe

Tag: Astronomy,Astrophysics,QuasarsIan O'Neill @ 8:57 am
On the very edge of our observable universe live two quasars. Both contain active and growing primordial black holes, but where's all the dust?