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Black Holes

A black hole is a location in space that possesses so much gravity, nothing can escape its pull, even light. Learn more about what black holes are and the latest news.

Related Topics: Dark Matter, The Big Bang Theory, Gravitational Waves, The Theory of Relativity in Space 

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An artist's rendering of the accretion disk around the supermassive black hole at the core of the spiral galaxy NGC 3147.

Surprise! This Monster Black Hole's Disk Shouldn't Exist

By Passant Rabie

Discovery of this black hole disk could provide insights regarding relativity theory.

black hole particles escaping

What Are Black Holes?

By Nola Taylor Redd

Black holes are mysterious objects of extreme density, with such strong gravitational attraction that even light cannot escape from their grasp if it comes near enough.

An artist's illustration depicts a quasar, or supermassive, ultra-luminous black hole.

The Largest Black Holes in the Universe Formed in a Snap — Then Stopped

By Brandon Specktor

The biggest, oldest black holes in the universe shouldn't technically exist. A new study provides fresh evidence for the weird, "direct collapse" process that may have made them.

Artist’s impression of CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope finding a fast radio burst and determining its precise location. The KECK, VLT and Gemini South optical telescopes joined ASKAP with follow-up observations to image the host galaxy.

Mysterious Extragalactic Flash Pinpointed for 2nd Time Ever

By Mike Wall

Astronomers are starting to get the goods on fast radio bursts, one of the most mysterious phenomena in the universe.

Supermassive black holes lurk in the hearts of most galaxies.

Voracious Black Holes Could Feed Alien Life on Rogue Worlds

By Mara Johnson-Groh

Black holes are engines of destruction on a cosmic scale, but they may also be the bringers of life.

An image of the spiral galaxy M51 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope

Astronomers Need a (Steady) Hand Tracing Spiral Galaxies to Find Black Holes

By Passant Rabie

A citizen-science project is asking people to trace spiral galaxies to help astronomers find intermediate-mass black holes.

In this image, streamlines showing magnetic fields overlay a color image of the dusty ring surrounding the Milky Way's supermassive black hole. Warm material falling toward the black hole creates a Y-shaped structure, with the black hole lying near the intersection of the two arms.

Magnetic Fields May Muzzle Milky Way's Monster Black Hole

By Nola Taylor Redd

The mysteriously quiet behavior of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole may be influenced by magnetic field lines.

Hubble observed this tiny galaxy hosting a supermassive black hole

This Tiny Galaxy Has a Pretty Big Black Hole

By Passant Rabie

A dwarf galaxy has an unusually large black hole.

Black hole

Stephen Hawking Was Right: Black Holes Can Evaporate, Weird New Study Shows

By Meredith Fore

In 1974, Stephen Hawking made one of his most famous predictions: that black holes eventually evaporate entirely.

Veil Nebula: Supernova Remnant

Best Astronomy and Astrophysics Books

By SPACE.com Staff

Space.com's editors present a list of the astrophysics and astronomy books worth a read-through.

An artist's depiction of a black hole.

What Is the Black Hole Information Paradox?

By Paul Sutter

The universe really likes its information — but black holes pose a huge paradox physicists can't yet solve.

This artist's impression shows a ring of cool interstellar gas around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*.

The Milky Way's Monster Black Hole Has a Cool Gas Halo — Literally

By Charles Q. Choi

For the first time, astronomers may have imaged the cool disk of gas surrounding the gigantic black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, a new study finds.

This is the first-ever image of a black hole.

The Scientists Behind the First Black Hole Photo Get Nod from Congress

By Meghan Bartels

Congress can sometimes feel as distant and impenetrable as a black hole — which was the topic of a House Science Committee hearing held yesterday (May 16).

Gravitational waves may leave a lasting mark on the universe.

The Universe Probably 'Remembers' Every Single Gravitational Wave

By Rafi Letzter

After these ripples in space and time pass through the universe, they may leave behind a sort of memory of their crossing.

In space, the Event Horizon Imager (currently at concept stage) could have a resolution more than five times that of the Event Horizon Telescope on Earth, which took the first-ever picture of a black hole. Left: Model of supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* at an observation frequency of 230 GHz. Right: A simulation of what type of image EHT could produce of Sagittarius A*.

Black Hole Photos Could Get Even Clearer with Space-Based Telescopes

By Doris Elin Salazar

The first-ever photo of a black hole amazed people across the world. Now, astronomers are aiming to take even sharper pictures of these enigmatic structures by sending radio telescopes into space.

A NASA image shows the M87 galaxy, in the middle of which is the black hole that was imaged for the first time earlier this month (bottom-most box). The top zoomed-in box shows the shockwaves caused by jets of plasma spewed out from the black hole.

Black Hole Spits Out High-Energy Jets at Near Light-Speed

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

Black holes gobble up most matter around them, but some of it escapes, spewing nearly-light-speed jets of material.

An artist's impression of the inner parts of the accretion disk around the black hole V404 Cygni.

This Black Hole's Jets Wobble Like Crazy Because It's Warping Space-Time

By Hanneke Weitering

This black hole's jets are wobbling at record speed!

An image of the Andromeda Galaxy captured with the Hyper-Suprime-Cam. A recent snapshot of Andromeda found only one signal that could have come from a medium-sized primordial black hole, or one that formed soon after the Big Bang.

One of Stephen Hawking's Most Famous Theories About Black Holes Just Suffered a Huge Blow

By Meredith Fore

A groundbreaking search for Hawking's ancient black holes comes back empty-handed.

An image from Chandra shows how the magnetar suddenly lit up in front of the black hole in 2013.

There's a Tiny, Bright Magnetar Photobombing Our Galaxy's Supermassive Black Hole

By Rafi Letzter

Astronomers studying black hole SagA* have to deal with the weird, frustrating little star that lit up right between Earth and the black hole in 2013.

This illustration shows the gas passing the black hole. The orange cloud is G2, and the blue lines represent the orbits of nearby stars around the supermassive black hole. The black hole's gravity shapes the behavior of every object in its neighborhood.

Physicists Closer to Solving Mystery of Weird Glowing Ring Around Milky Way's Black Hole

By Rafi Letzter

Astronomers watched a high-speed gas cloud slam into the atmosphere of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.