Scientists speculate that the black hole is pulling in gas from nearby space and this has formed a disc of orbiting material around it. Something like a star or small black hole also orbiting around it, is flying through the disc over and over, causing shockwaves and powerful energy bursts.
Watching these repeated eruptions in real time gives scientists a rare chance to study how black holes behave and learn more about these strange, powerful events. But for now, we still have more questions than answers.
What exactly is a black hole? Well, they’re not holes at all, rather incredibly dense regions in space with gravity so strong, not even light can escape.
There are stellar-mass black holes, which form when massive stars collapse and explode in a supernova, and supermassive black holes, which are millions to billions of times more massive and sit at the centers of galaxies.
Scientists know these cosmic powerhouses shape galaxies and influence how the universe evolves. But how do supermassive black holes form? That’s still one of astronomy’s biggest mysteries. A NASA scientist explains what we know (and don’t know) about these cosmic gargantuans.
Join us for a virtual Black History Month event with astronauts Stephanie Wilson, Jessica Watkins, Jeanette Epps, and Victor Glover as they discuss Black health and wellness in the context of space exploration.
The astronauts will join NASA’s Dr. Andrea Fore, Dr. Olga Emgushova and Dr. Sophia Sills-Tailor to talk about building a stronger community with better health. Gregory Robinson, James Webb Space Telescope program director, will deliver opening remarks.
The program is presented by the Agency African American Employee Resource Group Collaboration Team.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris placed a special phone call to space this week when she spoke with astronaut Victor Glover who is aboard the International Space Station.
Glover, a crew member of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission, is the first African American astronaut to fly on a commercial spacecraft, and the first African American to fly a long-term mission aboard the orbiting laboratory. This is his first spaceflight since being selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, the agency’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA.
Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
“Mary W. Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space. Mary never accepted the status quo, she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology,” said Bridenstine. “Today, we proudly announce the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building. It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success. Hidden no more, we will continue to recognize the contributions of women, African Americans, and people of all backgrounds who have made NASA’s successful history of exploration possible.”
The work of the West Area Computing Unit caught widespread national attention in the 2016 Margot Lee Shetterly book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race.” The book was made into a popular movie that same year and Jackson’s character was played by award-winning actress Janelle Monáe.
“We are honored that NASA continues to celebrate the legacy of our mother and grandmother Mary W. Jackson,” said, Carolyn Lewis, Mary’s daughter. “She was a scientist, humanitarian, wife, mother, and trailblazer who paved the way for thousands of others to succeed, not only at NASA, but throughout this nation.”
Jackson was born and raised in Hampton, Virginia. After graduating high school, she graduated from Hampton Institute in 1942 with a dual degree in math and physical sciences, and initially accepted a job as a math teacher in Calvert County, Maryland. She would work as a bookkeeper, marry Levi Jackson and start a family, and work a job as a U.S. Army secretary before her aerospace career would take off.
In 1951, Jackson was recruited by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which in 1958 was succeeded by NASA. She started as a research mathematician who became known as one of the human computers at Langley. She worked under fellow “Hidden Figure” Dorothy Vaughan in the segregated West Area Computing Unit.
After two years in the computing pool, Jackson received an offer to work in the 4-foot by 4-foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, a 60,000 horsepower wind tunnel capable of blasting models with winds approaching twice the speed of sound. There, she received hands-on experience conducting experiments. Her supervisor eventually suggested she enter a training program that would allow Jackson to earn a promotion from mathematician to engineer. Because the classes were held at then-segregated Hampton High School, Jackson needed special permission to join her white peers in the classroom.
Jackson completed the courses, earned the promotion, and in 1958 became NASA’s first Black female engineer. For nearly two decades during her engineering career, she authored or co-authored research numerous reports, most focused on the behavior of the boundary layer of air around airplanes. In 1979, she joined Langley’s Federal Women’s Program, where she worked hard to address the hiring and promotion of the next generation of female mathematicians, engineers and scientists. Mary retired from Langley in 1985.
“She always taught us that there’s no reason you can’t do these things.” NASA astronaut Dr. Jeanette Epps recalls who encouraged her to reach for the stars and talks about inspiring the #Artemis generation of young girls.
In this video, our scientists Paul McNamara and Matteo Guainazzi explain how we could combine the observing power of two of our future missions, LISA and Athena, to study these cosmic clashes and their mysterious aftermath for the first time.
LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, will be the first space-borne observatory of gravitational waves – fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime produced by the acceleration of cosmic objects with very strong gravity fields, like pairs of merging black holes. Athena, the Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics, will be the largest X-ray observatory ever built, investigating some of the hottest and most energetic phenomena in the cosmos with unprecedented accuracy and depth. Currently in the study phase, both missions are scheduled for launch in the early 2030s.
Credits: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (black hole image); NASA, ESA and F. Summers, STScI (Hubble Ultra Deep Field flythrough and galaxy merger); Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes Project (gravitational waves and merging black holes); NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre (spiralling supermassive black holes); AEI/Milde Science Communication/exozet (LISA orbit sequence); ESA/Hubble, NASA, M. Kornmesser
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
What if the Earth were swallowed by a black hole? Would humanity’s legacy be gone forever? Or could you somehow get back that information from behind the event horizon?
There are three possible answers to this question…but they all break physics as we know it!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fall into a black hole? Take a 360° adventure to find out!
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We did something a little different in this episode and answered questions from you, our viewers. If you have a questions about the universe, past videos, or life as a scientist, leave a comment below!
NOVA has teamed up with Cook’s Illustrated to cook up a recipe for stars and black holes – a culinary “course” on how the most mysterious objects in the universe are created.
A series of nighttime photos were taken by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli to create this time-lapse of the Earth from the Black Sea to Oman as seen from the International Space Station.
ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli in currently working and living on board the International Space Station as part of the Italian Space Agency’s long-duration VITA mission.
Highlighters have a number of uses, from helping acknowledge important text to acting as brightly-colored markers in our favorite coloring book. Around Halloween, though, we’ve found an entirely different use for them. With the Black Light Secret Message experiment, you’ll see that certain highlighters aren’t just brightly-colored – they actually glow underneath a black light! The secret messages and floating images you’ll create with this experiment are sure to create screams of joy and shrieks of excitement.
Read the full experiment at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/is-black-black
What color is black? Some people answer with a simple “black,” while others respond with something like “black is the absence of all color.” If you have ever run out of black paint or your black pen ran dry, you probably know how to make the color black. Mix a little blue with red and yellow and green and orange and purple and you finally make the color black. Do the people who make black pens mix different colors to make black? Using a technique called chromatography, let’s find out exactly what makes up the color in that black pen.
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Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered the first pair of supermassive black holes in a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way. Approximately 160 million light years from Earth, the pair is the nearest known such phenomenon. The black holes are located near the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 3393. Separated by only 490 light years, the black holes are likely the remnant of a merger of two galaxies of unequal mass a billion or more years ago.
New pictures and data about the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxies of the early universe join new findings about the planet Mercury are highlighted, along with a look ahead to the final shuttle flight and other NASA events, programs and projects of interest.
Administrator Charles Bolden talks of the contributions to the space program made by African Americans, including Guy Bluford, the first black man in space; the first African American woman in space; and Fred Gregory, the first black to pilot and command a space shuttle mission.
Order now at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/1144 Perform an amazing experiment in color separation with a water-soluble black pen, a pipe cleaner and a round piece of filter paper. There’s a rainbow of color in just one black dot! Perform an amazing experiment in color separation with a water-soluble black pen, a piece of fuzzy wire and a round piece of filter paper. An inexpensive and fun science activity to teach kids about the science of color.
Seen here in this short movie, the JWST is the successor to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and, with a six-metre mirror, it will be almost three times the size of Hubble.
