Astronomers snap first-ever image of supermassive black hole Sagitarrius A*

The image reveals a glowing, donut-shaped ring at the Milky Way’s heart.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
May 12, 2022 ~8 min

Search reveals eight new sources of black hole echoes

The findings will help scientists trace a black hole’s evolution as it feeds on stellar material.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
May 2, 2022 ~7 min


Physicists embark on a hunt for a long-sought quantum glow

A new approach could make it possible detect the elusive Unruh effect in hours, rather than billions of years.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
April 26, 2022 ~8 min

Super-bright stellar explosion is likely a dying star giving birth to a black hole or neutron star

The discovery, based on an unusual event dubbed “the Cow,” may offer astronomers a new way to spot infant compact objects.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
Dec. 13, 2021 ~6 min

Neutron star collisions are a “goldmine” of heavy elements, study finds

Mergers between two neutron stars have produced more heavy elements in last 2.5 billion years than mergers between neutron stars and black holes.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
Oct. 25, 2021 ~7 min

Physicists observationally confirm Hawking’s black hole theorem for the first time

Study offers evidence, based on gravitational waves, to show that the total area of a black hole’s event horizon can never decrease.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
July 1, 2021 ~7 min

LIGO and Virgo detect rare mergers of black holes with neutron stars for the first time

Gravitatational-wave signals suggest black holes completely devoured their companion neutron stars.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
June 29, 2021 ~7 min

Supermassive black holes devour gas just like their petite counterparts

Regardless of size, all black holes experience similar accretion cycles, a new study finds.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
May 17, 2021 ~7 min


Fast-spinning black holes narrow the search for dark matter particles

Certain ultralight bosons would be expected to put the brakes on black holes, but new results show no such slowdown.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
April 14, 2021 ~7 min

Astronomers image magnetic fields at the edge of M87’s black hole

New image of M87 reveals how it looks in polarized light.

MIT Haystack Observatory • mit
March 24, 2021 ~10 min

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