black hole

Table of Contents

Introduction & Top Questions References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

black hole in M87

NASA animation: sizing up the biggest black holes

Uncover insight into the black hole

dust disk around black hole in NGC 4261

stellar evolution

What are gravitational waves and how were they first detected?

How are gravitational waves applied in science and in everyday life?

Know about the discovery of gravitational waves and their role in unlocking secrets of the universe

For Students

black hole summary

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The merger of two black holes and the gravitational waves that ripple outward as the black holes spiral toward each other. The black holes-which represent those detected by LIGO on Dec. 26, 2015-were 14 and 8 times the mass of the sun, until they merged,

How Do Black Holes Really Work?

Discover

January 21, 2019: Superbowl LIII will be played at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday, February 3, 2019 against the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams.

What Was the Super Bowl’s First Blockbuster Commercial?

Parsons Weems' Fable, oil on canvas by Grant Wood, 1939; in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Catalog entry: The historian Mason Locke Weems, commonly known by his clerical title, Parson Weems, pulls back a curtain to point at 6-year-old George Washington. Bearing an adult head and holding an axe, George gazes blankly up at his father, Augustine, who questions his son while holding a partially cut cherry tree. All of this takes place in front of a 20th-century brick building, which Wood modeled after his own home in Iowa. The scene illustrates the fable of Washington and the cherry tree, which Weems invented in 1806 for the first president's biography. Wood playfully suggests the artifice of the tale here, presenting the story in the manner of a costumed stage play rather than a real event. Amid the action, two Black figures pick cherries in the background, a reference to Washington' slaveholding past and a reminder of of what often gets left out in historical mythmaking.

Did George Washington Really Say, “I Can’t Tell a Lie”?

Secret Service Agent Listens To Earpiece

Secret Service Code Names of 11 U.S. Presidents

Binary Computer Code, Binary Code, Internet, Technology, Password, Data

How Does Wi-Fi Work?

Data analysis of the Super Bowl's "winningest" teams, game locations, MVP winners by position, teams with the most game losses. football, sports, infographic

From Sport to Spectacle: The History of the Super Bowl

Fish. Lionfish. Lion-fish. Turkey fish. Fire-fish. Red lionfish. Pterois volitans. Venomous fin spines. Coral reefs. Underwater. Ocean. Red lionfish swims by seaweed.

10 of the World’s Most Dangerous Fish

Young man skeet shooting with airborne shell

6 Unusual Olympic Sports

black hole: Related Content

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News •

Scientists may have just discovered 300 of the rarest black holes in the universe • Feb. 20, 2025, 8:17 AM ET (Live Science)

Astronomers Discover Colossal Radio Jet From Early Universe • Feb. 6, 2025, 5:53 AM ET (Gizmodo)

Newly discovered x-ray objects could be a rare type of black hole • Jan. 30, 2025, 12:34 AM ET (Science | AAAS)

The First Monster Black Hole Ever Imaged Is Changing Before Our Eyes • Jan. 26, 2025, 3:53 PM ET (SciTechDaily)

Space telescopes stumble on rule-breaking black hole in early universe • Jan. 23, 2025, 9:11 PM ET (The Hindu)

Photos and Videos

black hole in M87

dust disk around black hole in NGC 4261

stellar evolution

NASA animation: sizing up the biggest black holes

Uncover insight into the black hole

What are gravitational waves and how were they first detected?

How are gravitational waves applied in science and in everyday life?

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

singularity accretion disk Kerr black hole event horizon mini black hole Penrose diagram supermassive black hole gravity general relativity wormhole star solar system star cluster cosmic microwave background quasar supernova planet X-ray source radio source intergalactic medium

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Andrea Ghez

American astronomer

Kip Thorne

American physicist

Reinhard Genzel

German astronomer

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking

British physicist

Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

American astronomer

Karl Schwarzschild

Karl Schwarzschild

German astronomer

An artist's representation of Penrose tiling

Roger Penrose

British mathematician

Roy Kerr

New Zealand mathematician

Quiz

View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).

Astronomy and Space Quiz

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

1 July 2002: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite reveals a massive solar eruption more than 30 times the Earth's diameter. The eruption formed when a loop of a magnetic field over the surface of the Sun trapped hot gas.

Brightest Star in the Solar System

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

The orbits of the planets and other elements of the solar system, including asteroids, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, comet

Space Odyssey

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

M101 (NGC 5457, The Pinwheel Galaxy). Hubble Space Telescope image of face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). Largest most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. Created from 1994-2003

Everything in Space in a 25-Minute Quiz

Demystified

The merger of two black holes and the gravitational waves that ripple outward as the black holes spiral toward each other. The black holes-which represent those detected by LIGO on Dec. 26, 2015-were 14 and 8 times the mass of the sun, until they merged,

How Do Black Holes Really Work?

The merger of two black holes and the gravitational waves that ripple outward as the black holes spiral toward each other. The black holes-which represent those detected by LIGO on Dec. 26, 2015-were 14 and 8 times the mass of the sun, until they merged,

How Do Black Holes Really Work?