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An international team of researchers has detected a series of significant X-ray oscillations near the innermost orbit of a supermassive black hole – an unprecedented discovery that could indicate the presence of a nearby stellar-mass orbiter such as a white dwarf.
Optical outburst
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-led team began studying the extreme supermassive black hole 1ES 1927+654 – located around 270 million light years away and about a million times more massive than the Sun – in 2018, when it brightened by a factor of around 100 at optical wavelengths. Shortly after this optical outburst, X-ray monitoring revealed a period of dramatic variability as X-rays dropped rapidly – at first becoming undetectable for about a month, before returning with a vengeance and transforming into the brightest supermassive black hole in the X-ray sky.
Posted in cosmology | Leave a Comment on ‘Impossible’ black holes detected by James Webb telescope may finally have an explanation — if this ultra-rare form of matter exists
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal monster black holes in the early universe that seem to have grown too big, too fast. New research points to a strange form of dark matter as a possible culprit.
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Help translate our videos! In this episode we dive deeper into the relationship between space and time and explore how we can geometrically map the causality of the universe and increase our understanding of how time and distance relate to one another. Important Reference Episodes: The Speed of Light is not about Light (1:16) • The Speed of Light is NOT About Light Can You Trust Your Eyes in Space Time? (1:16)
• Can You Trust Your Eyes in Spacetime? Previous Episode: Why Quasars are so Awesome
• Why Quasars are so Awesome | Space Time Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd Produced by Rusty Ward Graphics by Grayson Blackmon Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) Comments Answered by Matt: Michael Lloyd
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Astronomers have found a black hole in the early Universe that has a jet pointed at Earth, and which could help solve how the cosmic ‘dark ages’ came to an end.
A team led by Yale University found the ‘quasar’, which is brightening and dimming intensely.
Matter in intergalactic space is distributed in a vast network of interconnected filamentary structures, collectively referred to as the cosmic web. With hundreds of hours of observations, an international team of researchers has now obtained an unprecedented high-definition image of a cosmic filament inside this web, connecting two active forming galaxies—dating back to when the universe was about 2 billion years old.
A pillar of modern cosmology is the existence of dark matter, which constitutes about 85% of all matter in the universe. Under the influence of gravity, dark matter forms an intricate cosmic web composed of filaments, at whose intersections the brightest galaxies emerge. This cosmic web acts as the scaffolding on which all visible structures in the universe are built: within the filaments, gas flows to fuel star formation in galaxies. Direct observations of the fuel supply of such galaxies would advance our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.
However, studying the gas within this cosmic web is incredibly challenging. Intergalactic gas has been detected mainly indirectly through its absorption of light from bright background sources. But the observed results do not elucidate the distribution of this gas. Even the most abundant element, hydrogen, emits only a faint glow, making it basically impossible for instruments of the previous generation to directly observe such gas.
This find could unlock insights into dark matter and galaxy evolution.
Astronomers have discovered ‘Bullseye,’ a record-breaking galaxy with nine rings—six more than any other known galaxy.
For the first time, researchers have found evidence that even microquasars with low-mass stars can efficiently accelerate particles.
An international team of scientists has modeled the formation and evolution of the strongest magnetic fields in the universe.
Led by scientists from Newcastle University, University of Leeds and France, the paper was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The researchers identified the Tayler-Spruit dynamo caused by the fall back of supernova material as a mechanism leading to the formation of low-field magnetars. This new work solves the mystery of low-field magnetar formation, which has puzzled scientists since low-field magnetar discovery in 2010.
The team used advanced numerical simulations to model the magneto-thermal evolution of these stars, finding that a specific dynamo process within the proto-neutron star can generate these weaker magnetic fields.
