Bubbling, frothing and sloshing: Long-hypothesized plasma instabilities finally observed

PPPL scientists have observed new details of how plasma interacts with magnetic fields, potentially providing insight into the formation of enormous plasma jets that stretch between the stars.

Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiraling at the Edge of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration— which includes scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA)— has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Seen in polarized light for the first time, this new view of the monster lurking at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy has revealed a magnetic field structure strikingly similar to that of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, suggesting that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes. This similarity also hints toward a hidden jet in Sgr A*.

Científicos logran mejorar la nitidez de la primera imagen de un agujero negro

Un equipo de científicos, que incluyó a un astrónomo de NOIRLab de NSF, desarrolló una nueva técnica de aprendizaje automático (machine-learning) para mejorar la definición y la nitidez de imágenes de interferometría de radio. Para demostrar el poder de su nueva técnica, a la que llamaron PRIMO, el equipo creó una nueva versión, en alta definición, de la icónica imagen captada por el Telescopio Event Horizon del agujero negro supermasivo ubicado al centro de Messier 87, una galaxia elíptica gigante localizada a unos 55 millones de años luz de la Tierra.

A Sharper Look at the First Image of a Black Hole

A team of researchers, including an astronomer with NSF’s NOIRLab, has developed a new machine-learning technique to enhance the fidelity and sharpness of radio interferometry images. To demonstrate the power of their new approach, which is called PRIMO, the team created a new, high-fidelity version of the iconic Event Horizon Telescope’s image of the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, a giant elliptical galaxy located 55 million light-years from Earth.

Scientists map gusty winds in a far-off neutron star system

An accretion disk is a colossal whirlpool of gas and dust that gathers around a black hole or a neutron star like cotton candy as it pulls in material from a nearby star. As the disk spins, it whips up powerful winds that push and pull on the sprawling, rotating plasma. An accretion disk is a colossal whirlpool of gas and dust that gathers around a black hole or a neutron star like cotton candy as it pulls in material from a nearby star. As the disk spins, it whips up powerful winds that push and pull on the sprawling, rotating plasma.

Astronomers Discover Closest Black Hole to Earth

Astronomers using the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, have discovered the closest-known black hole to Earth. This is the first unambiguous detection of a dormant stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way. Its close proximity to Earth, a mere 1600 light-years away, offers an intriguing target of study to advance our understanding of the evolution of binary systems.

LLNL-led team uses machine learning to derive black hole motion from gravitational wave data

A team including a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) mathematician and collaborators at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and the University of Mississippi, has developed a machine learning-based technique capable of automatically deriving the motion of binary black holes from raw gravitational wave data.

Three PPPL scientists win competitive awards to conduct frontier plasma science work

World-class expertise in the study of plasma — the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions, that makes up 99 percent of the visible universe — has won frontier science projects for three physicists at PPPL.

Hubble Uncovers Concentration of Small Black Holes

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope in their hunt for a massive black hole at the heart of the globular cluster NGC 6397 found something they weren’t expecting: a concentration of smaller black holes lurking there instead. This is a new twist on the search for intermediate-mass black holes. They are the long-sought “missing link” between supermassive black holes and stellar-mass black holes.

How Large Are Neutron Stars?

An interdisciplinary research team has identified new, narrower limits on the radii of neutron stars—close to 11 kilometers. The novel approach combined two sources of information: the first gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations of a binary neutron-star collision, and modern nuclear-theory calculations of uncertainty. The results suggest that neutron-star black-hole collisions can swallow neutron stars whole.

American Institute of Physics Announces 2020 Science Communication Award Winners

The American Institute of Physics recognizes the winners of the 2020 Science Communication Awards for their topical works on reshaping our world, recognizing forgotten women in science, searching for knowledge, and hunting down black holes. The 2020 winners are Susan Hockfield, Joshua Sokol, Curtis Manley, and Catalyst.

AIP Congratulates 2020 Nobel Prize Winners in Physics

The 2020 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez, for their work on black holes, described by the Nobel committee as “the darkest secrets in the universe.” To help journalists and the public understand the context of this work, AIP is compiling a Nobel Prize resources page featuring relevant scientific papers and articles, quotes from experts, photos, multimedia, and other resources. The page will be updated throughout the day.