Swift Satellite

Gamma-ray bursts are already the most energetic events we know of in the universe. Now, astronomers have detected the most powerful one ever. The competition isn’t even close, either – it's almost a thousand times more powerful than your average GRB.

Astronomers have long proposed that there must be intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in space. Now, scientists from the University of New Hampshire have captured the best evidence so far of the existence of these mysterious middleweights, as one emerges from the dark to snack on a star.

Two billion light-years away, a supermassive black hole has been slowly swallowing a star. It's a spectacular thing to witness, and astronomers have had ample time to watch – this interstellar light show has been visible for over 10 years, making it the most drawn-out death of a star ever observed.

Observations carried out by NASA's Swift and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) space telescopes may have located the source of intense X-ray bursts emitted by supermassive black holes.

An international team of astronomers from Europe, Israel and the United States has succeeded in shedding light on the origin of Type la supernovae – powerful nuclear explosions in deep space that allow us to chart the vast distances between galaxies.

Astronomers have used NASA's Swift satellite to produce two stunning ultraviolet images of our nearest neighboring galaxies.