NASA’s TESS Mission Spots Its 1st Star-shredding Black Hole
For the first time, NASA’s planet-hunting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) watched a black hole tear apart a star in a cataclysmic phenomenon called a tidal disruption event. Follow-up observations…
Found: Three Black Holes On Collision Course
Astronomers have spotted three giant black holes within a titanic collision of three galaxies. The unusual system was captured by several observatories, including three NASA space telescopes. “We were only…
Hubble Finds Medusa in the Sky
The galaxy pictured in this Hubble image has an especially evocative name: the Medusa merger. Often referred to by its somewhat drier New General Catalogue designation of NGC 4194, this…
Finding Intermediate-Sized Black Holes
In our vast universe, the heaviest black holes grew from seeds. Nourished by the gas and dust they consume, or by merging with other dense objects, these seeds grow in…
Rocket Team: Are Solar Eruptions Messy, or Neat?
First all appears quiet. Suddenly, a bright flash lights up the telescope. In an instant, jets of super-heated plasma bloom against the blackness of space. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured…