A black hole and a neutron star walk into a gravitationally bound system…
What will happen if Cygnus X-1 evolves to become a system of two massive, compact objects (and will we ever find out)?
Biases in Astronomy: Is the M-sigma relation an upper limit?
The word “bias” shows up all the time in astronomy. What exactly does it mean? Also, how a recent study tackles the argument that the M-sigma relation may be biased.
OGLEing MACHOs
In previous astrobites posts, we’ve talked about using microlensing to find planets and to detect dark matter in other galaxies. However, one of the earliest applications of microlensing was a bit closer to home: the detection of compact objects in the dark matter halo of our own galaxy. We know there is a lot more mass in galaxies, including our own, than what we can see. Dark matter comprises more than 80% of the matter in our Universe, but what is it really comprised of?
What’s new in Nature? Uber bright supernovas, and shy early black holes!
Brief summaries of two recent Nature papers: one on a new class of ultraluminous supernova, the other on the first detection of the supermassive black holes population in the high redshift universe.
The Many Modes of Black Hole Accretion
New simulations explore the mechanisms by which black holes grow.
Black Holes and Dark Halos Growing Together
Wouldn’t it be cool is the super-massive black hole at the center of a huge galaxy was somehow related to the entire dark matter halo surrounding the system? Turns out it just might be.