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Hundreds of weird filaments of gas are hiding in our galaxy’s centre

2 June 2023

Astronomers have found strange strings of hot gas near the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, and they may be hurtling towards Earth

Astronomers have spotted the biggest cosmic explosion ever seen

12 May 2023

The most powerful explosion ever seen seems to come from a supermassive black hole devouring a colossal cloud of gas, blasting out enormous amounts of energy as it eats

A new image of a supermassive black hole has revealed more of the disc of matter falling into it and the powerful winds created by that process. The black hole in question is called M87*, and it was the subject of the first direct image of a black hole ? this new data will help researchers complete the picture.

Detailed image of supermassive black hole shows its powerful jet

26 April 2023

An image of a black hole called M87* shows never-before-seen details of matter falling into its centre and a jet shooting out of it, which has given astronomers a better understanding of the dynamics around this behemoth

Your essential guide to the many breathtaking wonders of the universe

22 April 2023

An abridged inventory of everything there is in the universe – from rogue planets and exomoons to supernovae, supermassive black holes and the cosmic web.

A supermassive black hole is hurtling away from its home galaxy

7 April 2023

For the first time, researchers have spotted what appears to be a supermassive black hole flying away from its home galaxy at incredible speeds, trailing bursts of star formation behind it

Dark energy may have been hiding in the cores of black holes all along

15 February 2023

Observations of galaxy growth can be explained if the black holes at their centre contain dark energy, pointing to a possible role in the universe's expansion

An illustration of GRB 221009. A black hole drives powerful jets of particles traveling near the speed of light. The jets pierce through the star, emitting X-rays and gamma rays as they stream into space

A weird gamma ray burst doesn't fit our understanding of the cosmos

7 December 2022

Astronomers have spotted a strange blast of gamma radiation from space that defies categorisation, and it may mean a gap in our understanding of how black holes form

Roger Penrose at the Mathematical Institute, Oxford.

Roger Penrose: Communicating with future universes

25 November 2022

Undeterred by the march of time, Roger Penrose turned 91 this year and is continuing to innovate, and even planning communications with future universes

F6ND3J An artist's depiction of a black hole in interstellar space pulling in gas and dust that start to heat. Gamma ray bursts exit at

We may finally know how blazars act as cosmic particle accelerators

23 November 2022

Supermassive black holes that beam powerful jets of matter towards Earth, known as blazars, accelerate particles to extraordinarily high energies – and astronomers have finally figured out how

Artist?s illustration of tidal disruption event where a supermassive black hole spaghettifies and gobbles down a star. Some of the material is not consumed by the black hole and is flung back out into space.

A black hole ate a star and belched out the remains two years later

14 October 2022

A distant black hole shredded a star in 2018, and released a plume of plasma travelling around 50 per cent the speed of light two years later – astronomers don’t know why it took so long