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Physics

What "naked" singularities are revealing about quantum space-time

Are points of infinite curvature, where general relativity breaks down, always hidden inside black holes? An audacious attempt to find out is shedding light on the mystery of quantum gravity

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Space

Wormholes could blast out blazing hot plasma at incredible speeds

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Space

'Unluckiest star' may be trapped in deadly dance with a black hole

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This new visualization of a black hole illustrates how its gravity distorts our view, warping its surroundings as if seen in a carnival mirror. The visualization simulates the appearance of a black hole where infalling matter has collected into a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk. The black hole?s extreme gravity skews light emitted by different regions of the disk, producing the misshapen appearance. Bright knots constantly form and dissipate in the disk as magnetic fields wind and twist through the churning gas. Nearest the black hole, the gas orbits at close to the speed of light, while the outer portions spin a bit more slowly. This difference stretches and shears the bright knots, producing light and dark lanes in the disk. Viewed from the side, the disk looks brighter on the left than it does on the right. Glowing gas on the left side of the disk moves toward us so fast that the effects of Einstein?s relativity give it a boost in brightness; the opposite happens on the right side, where gas moving away us becomes slightly dimmer. This asymmetry disappears when we see the disk exactly face on because, from that perspective, none of the material is moving along our line of sight. Closest to the black hole, the gravitational light-bending becomes so excessive that we can see the underside of the disk as a bright ring of light seemingly outlining the black hole. This so-called ?photon ring? is composed of multiple rings, which grow progressively fainter and thinner, from light that has circled the black hole two, three, or even more times before escaping to reach our eyes. Because the black hole modeled in this visualization is spherical and non-rotating, the photon ring looks nearly circular and identical from any viewing angle. Inside the photon ring is the black hole?s shadow, an area roughly twice the size of the event horizon ? its point of no return. This visualization is ?mass invariant,? which means it can represent a black hole of any mass. The size of the black hole's shadow is proportional to its mass, but so is the size of the accreetion disk, so its properties scale accordingly. Simulations and movies like these really help us visualize what Einstein meant when he said that gravity warps the fabric of space and time.

Physics

How the weird and powerful pull of black holes made me a physicist

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Primordial black holes crossing stars, orbit figures.

Space

Tiny black holes hiding in the sun could trace out stunning patterns

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Black hole in deep space

Space

Einstein was right about the way matter plunges into black holes

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Space

How could we give boring blobby galaxies a new, exciting shape?

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Physics

Black holes scramble information – but may not be the best at it

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A view of a supernova explosion with its bright light and shockwave visible; Shutterstock ID 2298465659; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

Kill the sun! How wild thought experiments drive scientific discovery

Features

Artists impression of a black hole

Space

Supermassive black holes may provide a nursery for mini ones to grow

The supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies may capture smaller black holes. Not only does this prove a place for the small black holes to grow, it also makes the supermassive ones look even bigger and brighter

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Space

How to destroy a black hole

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Space

A surprisingly enormous black hole has been found in our galaxy

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Space

We finally know why Stephen Hawking's black hole equation works

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Space

Sleeping black hole is way more massive than it should be

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