Sophisticated computer analysis of 20 years of data from the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array radio telescope has revealed evidence of hot bubbles in the dense, rapidly-spinning disk of material being sucked into a massive black hole 26,000 light-years distant at the heart of our own Milky Way Galaxy, astronomers announced.
Dancing of Orbiting Water Molecules
A disk of water molecules orbiting a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy 60 million light-years away is reverberating in response to variations in the energy output from the galaxy’s powerful central engine close to the black hole.
Dramatic Outburst Reveals Nearest Black Hole
Scientists have discovered the closest black hole yet, a mere 1,600 light years from Earth.
VLBA Reveals Cosmic Jet Formation
Astronomers have gained their first glimpse of the mysterious region near a black hole at the heart of a distant galaxy, where a powerful stream of subatomic particles spewing outward at nearly the speed of light is formed into a beam, or jet, that then goes nearly straight for thousands of light-years.
Nearby Quasars Come From Galactic Encounters
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array radio telescope have found previously unseen evidence that galaxy collisions trigger energetic quasar activity in relatively nearby galaxies.
Elongated Radio-Emitting Region in Center of Milky Way
For the first time, astronomers have determined the intrinsic size and shape of the highly charged region of radio emission surrounding what most scientists believe to be a supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy.