In a breakthrough, a team of computational astrophysicists has developed the most comprehensive model of luminous black hole accretion to date. The team used two of the world’s most powerful ...

This image shows the gas density in a two-dimensional cross-section of an accreting black hole. Brighter areas represent regions of higher density. Near the black hole, the accretion flow forms a ...

Astronomers have tracked a dramatic "changing-look" active galactic nucleus (AGN) whose central supermassive black hole appeared to switch off and then rapidly reignite. The galaxy, HE 1237−2252, ...

As black holes feed, they pull material into a disk around them. The material orbiting in this disk gets heated to extreme temperatures, and so it becomes a plasma — a state of matter in which some of ...

A star in a faraway galaxy is sending itself into a spiral of doom, repeatedly plunging through a disk of hot gas surrounding a black hole and releasing powerful bursts of X-rays in the process. Soon, ...