NGC 6240: A supermassive black hole in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Like many merging galaxies, NGC 6240 offers not one supermassive black hole but two. Eventually, though, they will merge to form a single object. The two galaxies of NGC 6240 began their merger process about 30 million years ago (as seen from Earth). Gravitational interactions between the two disk-shaped galaxies pulled out great streamers of millions of stars that spread across hundreds of tho... More »

First Black Hole Ever Detected Is More Massive Than We Thought

Cygnus X-1, which was first seen by an X-ray telescope in space in 1964, is farther away than earlier measurements have shown, which means it must be several times more massive.
International Center for Radio Astronomy Research - February 19, 2021

Astronomers Capture First Image of a Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope, a collaboration of many observatories around the world, has captured an image of the "shadow" of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy M87. It is the first image of any black hole.
Event Horizon Telescope - April 10, 2019

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Video: Stranger Than Fiction

The concept of black holes has intrigued scientists for hundreds of years. For an introduction to the topic, watch "Black Holes: Stranger than Fiction," the latest video from the Texas Cosmology Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

Pop Culture

Check out our selection of some of the best — and worst — roles played by black holes in movies, TV shows, books, and music. More »

The Hole Story

Black holes are one of the busiest research topics in all of astronomy. Learn more about this cutting-edge research and get a peek at the backgrounds of some of the world's top black-hole researchers. More »

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