Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless largely unconstrained by observations, and is instead routinely simplified as a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. Recent theory and simulations instead predict that accretion can...
Tag Archives: Black
Maybe black holes (and wormholes) aren’t as monstrous as we thought
![By Deutsch: Ute Kraus, Physikdidaktik Ute Kraus, Universität Hildesheim, Tempolimit Lichtgeschwindigkeit, (Milchstraßenpanorama im Hintergrund: Axel Mellinger) English: Ute Kraus, Physics education group Kraus, Universität Hildesheim, Space Time Travel, (background image of the milky way: Axel Mellinger) [CC BY-SA 2.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/deed.en) or CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Black_Hole_Milkyway-620x496.jpg)
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Astrophysics: How black holes restrain old galaxies
Supermassive black holes are thought to keep star formation under control by ejecting or stirring gas in galaxies. Observations of an old galaxy reveal a potential mechanism for how this process occurs. See Letter p.504
Nature 533 473 doi: 10.1038/533473a
Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds
Quiescent galaxies with little or no ongoing star formation dominate the population of galaxies with masses above 2 × 1010 times that of the Sun; the number of quiescent galaxies has increased by a factor of about 25 over the past ten billion years (refs 1, 2, 3, 4). Once star formation has been shut down, perhaps during the quasar phase of rapid accretion onto a...
Astrophysics: How black holes restrain old galaxies
Supermassive black holes are thought to keep star formation under control by ejecting or stirring gas in galaxies. Observations of an old galaxy reveal a potential mechanism for how this process occurs. See Letter p.504
Nature 533 473 doi: 10.1038/533473a
White woman sues sperm bank—again—after getting black man’s sperm
Jennifer Cramblett with her daughter Payton in 2014. (credit: Family via Georgia Newsday)
An Ohio woman has sued a sperm bank that mistakenly gave her sperm from an African-American donor.
Plaintiff Jennifer Cramblett, who is white, gave birth to her mixed-race daughter Payton three years ago. In her lawsuit (PDF), she says that the sperm bank's mix-up led to "an unplanned transracial parent-child...
A 17-billion-solar-mass black hole in a group galaxy with a diffuse core
Quasars are associated with and powered by the accretion of material onto massive black holes; the detection of highly luminous quasars with redshifts greater than z = 6 suggests that black holes of up to ten billion solar masses already existed 13 billion years ago. Two possible present-day ‘dormant’ descendants of this population of ‘active’ black holes have been found in the galaxies NGC 3842 and...
A 17-billion-solar-mass black hole in a group galaxy with a diffuse core
Quasars are associated with and powered by the accretion of material onto massive black holes; the detection of highly luminous quasars with redshifts greater than z = 6 suggests that black holes of up to ten billion solar masses already existed 13 billion years ago. Two possible present-day ‘dormant’ descendants of this population of ‘active’ black holes have been found in the galaxies NGC 3842 and...
Gravitational waves found! LIGO experiment watches two black holes smash together
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After more than a decade of looking, scientists say they’ve detected the gravitational waves given off when two black holes merged into one bigger black hole. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have detected gravitational waves. We did it!” Caltech physicist David Reitze, executive director of the...
Astrophysics: Why black holes pulse brightly
Black holes can produce oscillating outbursts of radiation that were thought to be associated with high rates of infalling matter. The observation of pulses of visible light from a black hole complicates this picture. See Letter p.54
Nature 529 28 doi: 10.1038/529028a
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