Supermassive black hole

Astronomers have discovered the closest known pair of supermassive black holes – and that record has two meanings. Not only are they the closest pair to Earth, but they’re the closest to each other as well, heading for an eventual monster merger.

Black holes are notoriously dark objects, but now astronomers have spotted strange light coming from behind one. The X-ray echoes seem to be the result of the intense gravity of the object warping space and bending the light back around into view.

Astronomers have taken a close-up image of a jet emitted by a supermassive black hole for the first time. The Event Horizon Telescope has zoomed in on the jet with 16 times the resolution and at 10 times higher frequencies than previous observations.

Supermassive black holes are thought to grow slowly over billions of years – but how did they appear so early in the universe’s lifetime? A new origin story suggests black hole seeds were created by halos of self-interacting dark matter collapsing.

Japanese astronomers have discovered the echoes of a “dying” supermassive black hole. While the object is quiet now, the team spotted the signatures of two huge radio jets that indicate it only recently fell silent after a bright, active phase.

The Milky Way is thought to host a supermassive black hole in its center – but perhaps its dark heart is made of different stuff. A new study proposes that it could instead be a core of dark matter made up of hypothetical particles called “darkinos.”

Supermassive black holes create turbulent environments at the centers of galaxies, which should disrupt star formation. But astronomers have peered closer at the heart of the Milky Way and found several “stellar eggs” – and they seem to be hatching.

Two years ago, astronomers revealed the first-ever direct images of a black hole. Now, the collaboration behind the historic image has released a new version that shows the polarization of the light around the object.

Supermassive black holes are usually stationary objects, thanks to their huge masses anchoring them in place. But now, astronomers have found evidence of a supermassive monster on the move within its home galaxy.

How exactly supermassive black holes got so big remains a mystery, but a new study suggests they may have been born from supernovae of hypothetical, primordial stars far bigger than any around today. And we might soon be able to detect the leftovers.

Astronomers have found a distant galaxy that has managed to continue making stars despite the presence of a "cold quasar" raging at its core. The discovery goes against current scientific knowledge and has prompted a rethink of how galaxies evolve.

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Roger Penrose for his proof that black holes result from general relativity, and jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for discovering the supermassive monster at the center of the Milky Way.