Distant Quasars Provide Crucial Link In Understanding Earliest Supermassive Black Holes

Extreme quasars near the dawn of time are giving astrophysicists clues to the formation of supermassive black holes.

Is a Sea Change Coming for New Horizons Heliospheric Science?

If you visit the New Horizons mission website frequently, you'll notice that the spacecraft continues to generate excellent science as it plows its way through the Kuiper Belt. It recently woke up from its latest hibernation period in good health and is transmitting data it gathered back to Earth. The spacecraft, in addition to studying the Jupiter system in 2007, the Pluto system in 2015, and the Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth in early 2019, has been doing some other fascinating solar system science since then thanks to two mission extensions in 2016 and 2023. Now, as a result of budget cuts at NASA, an important part of the NH science mission could end as early as October of this year.

Astronomers Find Little Red Dots About to Merge

Prior to its launch, astronomers were uncertain what the powerful JWST would find in the ancient, early Universe. One of its surprising findings was Little Red Dots, unexplained ancient objects. They're widely considered to be connected to the growth of SMBHs in the Universe. New research suggests that we may be seeing some LRDs before they merge, on their way to becoming SMBH.

Meet ASTRID, the New High-Resolution Cosmological Simulation

The ASTRID cosmological simulation has run from the Universe's early days up to the present day, z=0. ASTRID is larger than some other simulations, and smaller than others. But with a higher number of particles, it has higher-resolution than its fellows. Among other things, this can tell astronomers where to look for gravitational waves from black hole mergers with future GW observatories.

Astronomers Catch Black Hole Spewing Matter After Feeding

Black holes are some of the most awe-inspiring and mysterious celestial objects in the universe. This is primarily because astronomers still don’t understand the underlying mechanisms that drive black holes, including its formation, evolution, and end. As their name implies, black holes can’t be viewed directly since they blend into the background of the vastness of space. Therefore, astronomers are limited to “seeing” black holes when they consume other celestial objects, most notably stars. When this happens, the astronomers see the light from the star being violently consumed by a nearby black hole in a spectacular display. However, astronomers are still puzzled regarding what happens after the consumption.

Quantum Physicist Takes Aim at the Universe's Mysterious Arrow of Time

Scientists and philosophers have argued over the nature of time since … well, since time immemorial. Is time real, or is it a convenient illusion? Why does time seem to flow in just one direction? In a new book called “On Time,” British physicist Jim Al-Khalili lays out what he thinks is the answer to such questions.

Martian Astronomy: Percy Sees a ‘Phobos Eclipse’ From Mars

Sure. It’s just another image of Phobos crossing the disk of the Sun, as seen from the surface of Mars. Like so much of the modern space era, these images, once amazing, are now almost routine. But there’s some real science behind tasking the Mars rovers to conduct a little ‘Martian astronomy.’