massive black holes

Scientists unveil new and improved ‘skinny donut’ black hole image

14Apr

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Technology

Scientists unveil new and improved ‘skinny donut’ black hole image

[ad_1] The 2019 release of the first image of a black hole was hailed as a significant scientific achievement. But truth be told, it was a bit blurry - or, as one astrophysicist involved in the effort called it, a "fuzzy orange donut."Scientists on Thursday unveiled a new and improved image of this black hole - a behemoth at the center of a nearby galaxy - mining the same data used for the earlier one but improving its resolution by employing image reconstruction algorithms to fill in gaps in the original telescope observations. Hard to observe by their very nature, black holes are celestial entities exerting gravitational pull so strong no matter or light can escape. The ring of light - that is, the material being sucked into the voracious object - seen in the new image is about half t...

First image of a black hole gets a makeover with AI

[ad_1] The first image of a black hole captured four years ago revealed a fuzzy, fiery doughnut-shaped object. Now, researchers have used artificial intelligence to give that cosmic beauty shot a touch-up.The updated picture, published Thursday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, keeps the original shape, but with a skinnier ring and a sharper resolution. The image released in 2019 gave a peek at the enormous black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, 53 million light-years from Earth. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. It was made using data gathered by a network of radio telescopes around the world, showing swirling light and gas. But even with many telescopes working together, gaps remained in the data. In the latest study, scientists relied on the same data and used machine lear...

Runaway black hole creating trail of new stars: scientists

[ad_1] A huge black hole is tearing through space, leaving behind a 200,000-light-year-long trail of newborn stars, space scientists say.The supermassive monster -- likely born of a bizarre game of intergalactic billiards -- is rampaging through the blackness and plowing into gas clouds in its path. The incredible forces at play mean this gas is being forged into a contrail of new stars, which have been captured on camera by NASA's powerful Hubble Space Telescope. "We think we're seeing a wake behind the black hole where the gas cools and is able to form stars," said Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University."What we're seeing is the aftermath. Like the wake behind a ship, we're seeing the wake behind the black hole."Researchers believe gas is probably being blasted and warmed by the motion ...