New research suggests that the heart of the Milky Way may be dominated by a dense clump of dark matter rather than the ...

Scientists have named two systems of colliding supermassive black holes after Lord of the Rings locations, Gondor and Rohan.

Supermassive black holes rarely travel alone. Most large galaxies hide one at the center, and when galaxies collide, the two ...

New research reveals how quiet galactic engines can help shape entire galaxies.

In my January 23, 2026, “The Universe” column, I wrote about some of the biggest bangs the universe has to offer: exploding stars, hiccupping magnetars, stellar disruptions and colliding black holes.

Scientists have named newly detected merging supermassive black holes after ’Lord of the Rings’ locations, using gravitational wave data and quasar observations to map their mergers.

Supermassive black hole binaries form naturally when galaxies merge, but scientists have only confidently observed a very few of these systems that are widely separated. Black hole binaries that ...

Gigantic black holes lurk at the center of virtually every galaxy, including ours, but we've lacked a precise picture of what ...

Researchers at Oxford University and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) are ...

For a single supermassive black hole, extremely strong lensing occurs only when a star lies almost exactly along the line of ...

It's nicknamed Jetty McJetface.

Astronomers propose that an ultra-dense clump of exotic dark matter could be masquerading as the powerful object thought to ...