Galaxies

Supermassive black holes emit jets of white-hot plasma that stretch thousands of light-years across the cosmos. For the first time, researchers have identified what’s creating these jets.

For decades, astronomers debated whether a particular smudge was close-by and small, or distant and huge. A new X-ray map supports the massive option.

Over the past two years, astronomers have rewritten the story of our galaxy.

Professional astronomers may not point their telescopes by hand anymore, but COVID-19 has still closed observatories and impeded research.

And why is the black hole at the center of our own galaxy so dim?

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

Tiny, dim “dwarf” galaxies have been found to hide gas-spewing black holes.

Astronomers couldn’t find enough satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Now they have the opposite problem.

Quasars powered by supermassive black holes have been unexpectedly vanishing. Scientists have started to figure out why.