SUNSET: 
Swift Black Hole Winds May Shape Galaxy
Winds that charge away from supermassive black holes at a fraction of the speed of light have long been mysterious and even contentious. Now, new evidence sheds light on their origins.
Active Black Hole Encourages Starbirth
Astronomers have discovered long filaments of cold gas — the ingredient for making stars — cocooning giant bubbles inflated by a black hole.
Best Evidence Yet for an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole
An intermediate-mass black hole might be lurking within a dense stellar cluster — a discovery that could point toward how these oddities form.
Black Hole Feeds on Star for a Decade
Unlucky stars serve as brilliant but short-lived snacks when they wander too close to supermassive black holes. But one such black hole is still gnawing on its stellar meal after a decade.
Mystery Object in Cygnus A Galaxy
Astronomers have discovered an object in the active galaxy Cygnus A that wasn’t there before.
Milky Way’s Black Hole Is Throwing Cosmic Spitballs
Every now and then, the Milky Way’s central, supermassive black hole tears apart a star and flings away some of its innards. Now astronomers think they know how to spot these cosmic spitballs.
1,000 Black Holes in Deepest-Ever X-ray Image
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has gazed at a small patch of sky for almost 12 weeks, revealing 1,008 X-ray-emitting sources — most of them supermassive black holes.
Top 12 Astronomy News Stories of 2016
From the discovery of gravitational waves to the building evidence that a massive planet could exist beyond Pluto, it has been a thrilling year for astronomy research. We recap.
"Brightest Supernova Ever" or Shredded Star?
An incredible blaze of light discovered more than a year ago still has astronomers baffled as to its cause - and the answer may be contrary to recent headlines.
Runaway Black Hole Flees Behemoth Galaxy
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole in a stripped-down galaxy racing away from a near-fatal close encounter in the center of a galaxy cluster.
Orbital Path 11: Black Hole Breakthroughs
Michelle Thaller talks with three leading scientists about black holes - how do we know they exist, where do they come from, and how can we learn more about them without going too close?
Brilliant X-ray Flashes from Faraway Black Holes?
Two sources tens of millions of light-years away have sent puzzling X-ray flares blazing our way. Now astronomers think they might have the answer: intermediate-mass black holes.
Seeing a Black Hole’s Gravitational Vortex
New observations solve a 30-year-old puzzle of mysterious signals from around black holes.
LIGO Detects Second Black Hole Collision
The gravitational wave observatory has detected a second event, heralding a new era in astrophysics. The day after Christmas last year, the cosmos quietly gifted scientists with gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of spacetime – produced in a collision between two stellar-mass black holes. It’s the second event…
Clouds Rain Down on Black Hole
Astronomers have detected three cold gas clumps falling toward a galaxy's center — at odds with the prevailing idea for how black holes grow.
How Dead Galaxies Stay Dead
A galaxy in the midst of a merger isn’t forming stars, even though it could. Astronomers think the galaxy’s central black hole might be the reason why.
Did Fermi Detect LIGO’s Merging Black Holes?
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope might have detected a burst from the same merging black holes that emitted the gravitational waves LIGO detected.
Astronomers Gauge Spin in Black Hole Duo
Astronomers have measured the spin of one of the universe's most massive black holes — and provided evidence that the behemoth has a companion.
Gravitational Wave Detection Heralds New Era
LIGO scientists have announced the direct detection of gravitational waves, a discovery that won't just open a new window on the cosmos — it'll smash the door wide open.
The Case of the Disappearing Quasar
When a quasar, a black hole-fueled beacons that shines from across the cosmos, went dark, astronomers set out to find out why.
