Black hole milky way articles
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Black holes are common. So where are the white holes?
In our Universe, the laws of physics tell us all the possibilities for what’s allowed to conceivably exist, but only by actually observing, measuring, and experimenting with our Universe itself can we determine what’s truly real. In Einstein’s general relativity, one of the very first possibilities that was ever discovered was for a black hole: a region of space with so much matter-and-energy in one place that from within that volume, nothing, not even light, could ever escape. The flip side of...
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Gaia BH3, the black hole that shouldn't exist
The recent discovery of a binary system containing an extremely rare object, the most massive black hole (apart from SgrA ) ever detected in our Galaxy, calls into question the models for the formation of these bodies.
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Mapping the Milky Way's magnetic field in 3D
We are all very familiar with the concept of the Earth's magnetic field. It turns out that most objects in space have magnetic fields but it's quite tricky to measure them. Astronomers have developed an ingenious way to measure the magnetic field of the Milky Way using polarized light from interstellar dust grains that align themselves to the magnetic field lines. A new survey has begun this mapping process and has mapped an area that covers the equivalent of 15 times the full moon.