Today I will be previewing a neat result me and Tom have been working on for the past few months. It’s going to be a bit more technical than my usual post, so please bear with me. In September 2017, a new black hole X-ray binary called Maxi J1535-571 was discovered, and Tom started observing […]
When black hole jets disappear Read More »
Radio galaxies are powered by a central supermassive black hole feeding on surrounding matter. Some of this matter is ejected in opposing directions along the axis of rotation of the black hole in the form of powerful relativistic jets. These jets are launched with velocities close to the speed of light and travel vast distances
The Lord of the Wings: Winged and X-shaped radio galaxies Read More »
Numerous black holes are hidden in the space. These compact objects are difficult to probe as light cannot escape from the strong gravities from them. Fortunately, some black holes are actively shaping their environment and in such a way, we could “catch” them. SS 443 is one of the most popular and active black hole
A young black hole blowing a huge bubble into space Read More »
By Dr. Richard Anantua This past decade has been a landmark in the history of black hole astrophysics— bringing precise experimental confirmation to bear upon revolutionary predictions of Einstein’s general theory of relativity from just over a century ago. LIGO’s 2015 observation of the “chirp” signal characteristic of the merger of two black holes marked
A Glimpse into Supermassive Black Holes from “Observing” JAB Simulations Read More »
On 18 December 2010, a huge human task was accomplished. 5,160 spherical optical sensors called Digital Optical Modules (DOMs) were transported and placed under the frozen surface of Antarctica. 52 institutions from 12 countries around the globe contributed (and still do) to this collaboration. The DOMs, attached to 86 vertical “strings”, cover a cubic-kilometer area
IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory Read More »
There’s no doubt about it: Einstein’s general theory of relativity has changed the way we understand the cosmos, with its crowning glory being the discovery of black holes. Last year (2019), in May, I gave a short talk about the Event Horizon Telescope results on a webinar (link here) hosted by SPACE- India, an organization
The beauty of Einstein’s equations: black holes and beyond Read More »
Relativistic jets are ubiquitous and we can observe them in a wide range of scales: from stellar-mass objects (e.g., stellar-mass black holes, neutron stars or pulsars) to massive objects (e.g., active galactic nuclei, radio galaxies). In fact, those jets are key players in shaping our universe into what it is now. For example, jets from
Fate of Jets in X-ray binaries: jet-wind interaction Read More »
Black hole X-ray binaries are systems in which a stellar-mass black hole ‘feeds’ on (accretes) gas from a companion star. Gas from the star swirls around the black hole, forming an accretion disk. The accretion disk shines brightly at X-ray frequencies and black hole X-ray binaries are some of the brightest X-ray emitting sources observed
When A Black Hole Devours A Star Read More »
Today’s story starts in 1967, at the height of the Cold War. The US Air Force has been using its Vela satellites to monitor any traces of gamma-ray radiation, a dead giveaway of nuclear tests being conducted on Earth. The goal is to make sure that the USSR is complying with the 1963 Nuclear Test
Astronomy occasionally sounds like a spy movie Read More »
Recently, I have been involved in a study looking for potential X-ray binaries in the relatively nearby spiral galaxy M83. And we think we found one! Here we refer to a microquasar as either a black hloe or neutron star X-ray binary. This work was led by Prof. Roberto Soria at the University of the
Finding a candidate X-ray binary in another galaxy Read More »
