One of the things which particularly caught my eye in this week’s Carnival of Space was that article from the quite marvellous Science in a Can about a singing black hole! This black hole is about 250 million light years away … Continue reading
Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, I bid you welcome to this week’s edition of Carnival of Space. With Curiosity’s daredevil landing on Mars this week, there’s a distinctly martian flavour about this carnival! Whether this is your first time … Continue reading
If I had to pick a handful of favourite things in all of physics, black holes and nuclear fusion would be among them. Hands down. This interesting little paper which I stumbled across earlier (via a link to the APS … Continue reading
A supermassive black hole is rather like a gravitational version of the Incredible Hulk. Massive, mean, able to take on anything thrown at it, and virtually unstoppable. While the smaller black holes may form when a massive but otherwise normal … Continue reading
Everything in the Universe likes to go in circles. Moons orbit planets, planets orbit stars, stars orbit other stars — and in each case all parts of the system are interrelated. The speed at which one star orbits another, for … Continue reading
Around 50 million light years away, lies a rather lovely spiral galaxy known as NGC 1097. Seen in infrared light by Spitzer in this image, it reminds me a little of an egyptian Eye of Horus. That pupil however, is … Continue reading
Just the concept of black holes is captivating, isn’t it? No wonder they’re central to the plotlines of so many movies and sci-fi stories. The idea of an object so dense that light can’t travel fast enough to escape from … Continue reading
Ghost hunting isn’t typically the sort of thing you’d expect the Chandra space telescope to be doing. Evidently though, it’s rather good at it! Specifically an x-ray ghost betraying the presence of a galaxy’s supermassive black hole. Feel free to … Continue reading
It’s bad luck if a black hole crosses your path. Actually it’s very bad luck, particularly if you happen to be a star like SDSS J090745.0+024507. Known by some as “The Outcast Star”, it had the misfortune tens of millions … Continue reading
It’s funny… Sagittarius A* seems to hold the same fascination for me these days that the Sun used to hold when I was just a kid. I’ve been meaning on writing something about this for a while now, and seeing … Continue reading
Writing this blog is a labour of love, and one which I evidently need a little encouragement towards on occasion. If you like what I write, the best way to show your gratitude would be to fuel my caffeine addiction and buy me a coffee to say thank you. All coffee donations are gratefully accepted!
Never stop dreaming...
