How Do Black Holes Form?

There is a black hole at the center of this spiral galaxy: Image courtesy of NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

Objects can fall into, but never escape from, black holes – so where do stellar, supermassive, and primordial black holes come from?

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What is a Black Hole?

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al.; Submillimeter: MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al.; Optical: ESO/WFI

We hear about black holes a lot, but although they are often mentioned, they are seldom explained. For one thing, a black hole isn’t really a hole at all.

Is Star Death Related to Black Hole Evaporation?

black hole

Does the death of a star affect a black hole’s evaporation rates? Dr. Paul Heckert explains astronomy theories to answer a reader’s question.

Dark Galaxies Discovered: Early Stage in Galaxy Formation

dark galaxies

Dark galaxies, with low mass and few stars, were just a theory. Now, however, scientists have used quasar illumination to find actual examples of the phenomenon.

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The Remarkable Discoveries of Fritz Zwicky

Zwicky was first to discover galaxies form in clusters - small portion of Coma Galaxy Cluster shown here. NASA Image by Hubble.

Fritz Zwicky was the first astronomer to propose the existence of dark matter, supernovas, neutron stars, galactic cosmic rays, gravitational lensing by galaxies, and galaxy clusters. However, he remains virtually unknown to the public to this day.

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