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galaxies

Latest Articles

Video simulation of gas around a black hole.
astrophysics

Astronomers Find Black Holes Stirring Up the Biggest Galaxies

By Charlie Wood
December 12, 2019
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After a space telescope disintegrated, astrophysicists had little hope of understanding how supermassive black holes agitate giant galaxies. Then they invented a hack.

Artists impression of AGN driven outflows from a dwarf galaxy
Abstractions blog

Big Black Holes Found in the Smallest Galaxies

By Ramin Skibba
July 23, 2019
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Tiny, dim “dwarf” galaxies have been found to hide gas-spewing black holes.

Art for "Missing Galaxies? Now There’s Too Many"
astrophysics

Missing Galaxies? Now There’s Too Many

By Shannon Hall
January 9, 2019
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Astronomers couldn’t find enough satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Now they have the opposite problem.

Art for "Galactic Beacons Get Snuffed Out in a Cosmic Eyeblink"
astrophysics

Galactic Beacons Get Snuffed Out in a Cosmic Eyeblink

By Shannon Hall
November 21, 2018
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Quasars powered by supermassive black holes have been unexpectedly vanishing. Scientists have started to figure out why.

astrophysics

Astronomers Creep Up to the Edge of the Milky Way’s Black Hole

By Joshua Sokol
October 30, 2018
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Hot spots have been discovered orbiting just outside the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Their motions have given us the closest look at that violent environment.

Illustration of a galaxy simulation.
cosmology

The Universe Is Not a Simulation, but We Can Now Simulate It

By Natalie Wolchover
June 12, 2018
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Computer simulations have become so accurate that cosmologists can now use them to study dark matter, supermassive black holes and other mysteries of the real evolving cosmos.

Andrea Ghez in Hawaii
Q&A

Black-Hole Hunter Takes Aim at Einstein

By Joshua Sokol
July 27, 2017
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The astrophysicist Andrea Ghez spent two decades proving that a supermassive black hole anchors the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Her new plan? Test what happens when things get too close.

Andromeda galaxy
Abstractions blog

How Superfluid Dark Matter Mimics an Old Idea About Gravity

By Jennifer Ouellette
June 13, 2017
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Does the force of gravity change at large scales? Perhaps not, but a new theory of dark matter shows why that could appear to be the case.


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