PERSEUS BLACK HOLE

A view of the central region of the Perseus galaxy cluster, one of the most
massive objects in the universe, shows the effects that a relatively small but
supermassive black hole can have
BLACK HOLE WIND
A composite x-ray/optical image of the active NGC 1068 galaxy reveals an
enormous plume of hot gas emanating from the supermassive black hole at
the galaxy's center. Scientists think the shape and speed of the plume, which
moves at about 1 million miles an hour (1.6 million kilometers an hour), are
caused by the funneling effect of a doughnut-shaped ring of cooler gas and
dust that surrounds the black hole.

UNEXPECTED X-RAYS
In 2000, astronomers studying the A2104 galaxy cluster (in blue) discovered
powerful x-rays emanating from several black holes in regions previously
thought too old and devoid of gas to create such radiation. They had expected
to find perhaps one such x-ray source in the area, but instead found six. The
discovery, made using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, changed many of the
assumptions scientists had made about the life cycles of galaxies and black
holes.
INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLE
Astronomers think the object shown in this Chandra X-ray Observatory image
(in box) may be an elusive intermediate-mass black hole. Located about 32
million light-years from Earth in the Messier 74 galaxy (M74), this object emits
periodic bursts of x-rays at a rate that suggests it is much larger than a stellar-
mass black hole but significantly smaller than the supermassive black holes
found at the centers of galaxies. Few such middling black holes have been
discovered, and scientists aren't sure how they form.
X-RAY JET
An artist's rendering, made using data collected by the orbiting Chandra X-ray
Observatory, shows a quasar galaxy with a jet of high-energy particles
extending more than 100,000 light-years from the supermassive black hole
at its center. The object, located 12 billion light-years from Earth, is the most
distant such jet ever detected. These quasar jets are formed when electrons
emitted from a black hole impact with cosmic background radiation left by
the big bang, giving astronomers clues about the conditions in the early
universe.

SCIENCESTARSTRUCK
Black Holes, explained
These infinitely dense points in space will spaghettify
anything that ventures too close.
BY MAYA WEI-HAAS

BLACK HOLES ARE points in space that are so dense they create
deep gravity sinks. Beyond a certain region, not even light can escape
the powerful tug of a black hole's gravity. And anything that ventures
too close—be it star, planet, or spacecraft—will be stretched and
compressed like putty in a theoretical process aptly known as
spaghettification.

There are four types of black holes: stellar, intermediate,

supermassive, and miniature. The most commonly known way a
black hole forms is by stellar death. As stars reach the ends of their
lives, most will inflate, lose mass, and then cool to form white dwarfs.
But the largest of these fiery bodies, those at least 10 to 20 times as
massive as our own sun, are destined to become either super-
dense neutron stars or so-called stellar-mass black holes.

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B L A C K H O L E S 1 0 1 At the center of our galaxy, a supermassive black hole
churns. Learn about the types of black holes, how they form, and how
scientists discovered these invisible, yet extraordinary objects in our universe.

In their final stages, enormous stars go out with a bang in massive

explosions known as supernovae. Such a burst flings star matter out
into space but leaves behind the stellar core. While the star was alive,
nuclear fusion created a constant outward push that balanced the
inward pull of gravity from the star's own mass. In the stellar
remnants of a supernova, however, there are no longer forces to
oppose that gravity, so the star core begins to collapse in on itself.
If its mass collapses into an infinitely small point, a black hole is
born. Packing all of that bulk—many times the mass of our own sun—
into such a tiny point gives black holes their powerful gravitational
pull. Thousands of these stellar-mass black holes may lurk within our
own Milky Way galaxy.

One black hole is not like the others

Supermassive black holes, predicted by Einstein's general theory of
relativity, can have masses equal to billions of suns; these cosmic
monsters likely hide at the centers of most galaxies. The Milky Way
hosts its own supermassive black hole at its center known
as Sagittarius A* (pronounced “ay star”) that is more than four
million times as massive as our sun.

The tiniest members of the black hole family are, so far, theoretical.
These small vortices of darkness may have swirled to life soon after
the universe formed with the big bang, some 13.7 billion years ago,
and then quickly evaporated. Astronomers also suspect that a class
of objects called intermediate-mass black holes exist in the universe,
although evidence for them is so far debatable.

No matter their starting size, black holes can grow throughout their
lives, slurping gas and dust from any objects that creep too close.
Anything that passes the event horizon, the point at which escape
becomes impossible, is in theory destined for spaghettification
thanks to a sharp increase in the strength of gravity as you fall into
the black hole.

As astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson once described the process:

“While you're getting stretched, you're getting squeezed—extruded
through the fabric of space like toothpaste through a tube.”

But black holes aren't exactly “cosmic vacuum cleaners,” as often

depicted in popular media. Objects must creep fairly close to one to
lose this gravitational tug-of-war. For example, if our sun was
suddenly replaced by a black hole of similar mass, our planetary
family would continue to orbit unperturbed, if much less warm and
illuminated.

Peering through the darkness

Because black holes swallow all light, astronomers can't spot them
directly like they do the many glittery cosmic objects in the sky. But
there are a few keys that reveal a black hole's presence.

For one, a black hole's intense gravity tugs on any surrounding

objects. Astronomers use these erratic movements to infer the
presence of the invisible monster that lurks nearby. Or objects can
orbit a black hole, and astronomers can look for stars that seem to
orbit nothing to detect a likely candidate. That's how astronomers
eventually identified Sagittarius A* as a black hole in the early 2000s.

Black holes are also messy eaters, which often betrays their locations.
As they sip on surrounding stars, their massive gravitational and
magnetic forces superheat the infalling gas and dust, causing it to
emit radiation. Some of this glowing matter envelops the black hole
in a whirling region called an accretion disk. Even the matter that
starts falling into a black hole isn't necessarily there to stay. Black
holes can sometimes eject infalling stardust in mighty radiation-
laden burps.