Gizmodo reporter Ryan Mandelbaum writes that researchers determined how fast a supermassive black hole spins by measuring a star being swallowed by the black hole. Postdoctoral fellow Dheeraj Pasham explains that, “this measurement is different in the sense that we were able to measure the spin of a black hole that was dormant.”
Astronomers from MIT have detected echoes in X-ray flares emitted by a black hole consuming stellar material, writes Charles Q. Choi for Space.com. The findings “might shed light on how matter behaves not just as it falls into stellar-mass black holes,” writes Choi, “but also supermassive black holes millions to billions of times the mass of the sun.”
BBC News reporter Jonathan Amos writes that LIGO (operated by MIT and Caltech) and Virgo researchers have detected gravitational waves emanating from the largest black hole merger ever detected. Amos notes the discovery was announced by the collaboration as part of an “expanded catalogue” of detections that “tells us something about the probable future successes of the laser laboratories.”
A new study co-authored by Assistant Prof. Salvatore Vitale shows that the collision of a black hole and neutron star could provide insight into how quickly the universe is expanding. One such merger could allow physicists to calculate the expansion rate “as effectively as combining data from 50 different neutron-star collisions,” reports Meghan Bartels for Space.com.
A new paper by Assistant Prof. Salvatore Vitale finds that studying the rare pairing of a neutron star and a spiraling black hole could allow researchers to determine the universe’s rate of expansion, writes Jeremy Fox of The Boston Globe. The positive detection of a collision could “potentially give a dramatic contribution to our understanding of the universe,” says Vitale.
An international research team led by postdoctoral fellow Carl Rodriguez has found that within a group of star clusters, black hole collisions can actually create larger black holes, writes Nola Taylor Redd for Fox News. A simulation showed that these black holes “should grow to be more than 50 times as massive as Earth's sun if they collide with other black holes.”
Research led by Dheeraj Pasham, a postdoc at MIT's Kavli Institute, provides evidence “that black holes feed on passing stars then eject energetic jet streams,” writes Laney Ruckstuhl for The Boston Globe. “Such black hole jet streams can have large implications for the galaxies they enter. Pasham said they can regulate the growth of a galaxy because of their energy levels."
Meghan Bartels of Newsweek discusses a discovery from the Kavli Institute of the first tidal disruption flare or “jet” that’s been produced due to a supermassive black hole consuming a star in space. “This is telling us the black hole feeding rate is controlling the strength of the jet it produces,” NASA Einstein Postdoc Fellow and lead researcher Dheeraj Pasham said.
Writing for Space.com, contributor Nola Taylor Redd describes new research from MIT and Johns Hopkins University that shows a black hole "gobbling down a stellar meal." The finding is "providing insight into how black holes devour matter and affect the evolution of galaxies," explains Redd.
Brooks Hays for UPI highlights research led by postdoc Dheeraj Pasham from MIT's Kavli Institute, that has captured the rare occurrence of “radio signals produced by a black hole devouring a star.” “This is the first time we've seen a jet that's controlled by a feeding supermassive black hole,” explained Pasham.
Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss has been named to The Boston Globe’s list of the 2017 Bostonians of the Year for his work starting a new revolution in astronomy. Globe reporter Eric Moskowitz notes that Weiss, “shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for conceiving and shepherding a set of observatories that allowed scientists to prove Einstein’s assertion about gravitational waves.”
The discovery of the oldest and most distant black hole ever detected has provided a team of astronomers new insights into our universe, writes Alyssa Meyers for The Boston Globe. “In some sense, what we’ve done is determine with a high degree of accuracy when the first stars in the universe turned on,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
The discovery of the oldest and most distant black hole ever observed could provide scientists with insights into the early stages of our universe, reports Will Dunham for Reuters. “This object provides us with a measurement of the time at which the universe first became illuminated with starlight,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce reports that scientists have discovered the most distant supermassive black hole every discovered, and that the findings are shedding light on when starlight first appeared in our universe. "We have an estimate now, with about 1 to 2 percent accuracy, for the moment at which starlight first illuminated the universe,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
USA Today reporter Doyle Rice writes that a team of astronomers, including several from MIT, has discovered the oldest and most distant supermassive black hole ever detected. “The black hole resides in a quasar and its light reaches us from when the universe was only 5% of its current age — over 13 billion years ago,” explains Rice.