Latest news with #galaxies
WIRED
2 days ago
- Science
- WIRED
Newly Discovered ‘Infinity Galaxy' Could Prove How Ancient Supermassive Black Holes Formed
Jul 22, 2025 5:00 AM This collision of two galaxies could demonstrate that theorized 'direct collapse black holes' exist. The newly discovered Infinity Galaxy. Photograph: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, P. van Dokkum A team of astronomers have discovered a curious figure in the universe. It is two distant galaxies colliding with each other to form a larger structure. From Earth's perspective, the junction of the disks resembles the number eight lying down, similar to the infinity symbol (∞). Because of this resemblance, the researchers—who are based at the universities of Yale and Copenhagen—have nicknamed it the 'Infinity Galaxy' and have detailed their discovery in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Beyond its evocative shape, the structure intrigues the scientists because of its contents: Within it could be the first direct evidence of a newly formed primordial supermassive black hole. The images were taken through the James Webb Space Telescope and then enriched with information from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the most powerful X-ray telescope ever created. Light from this galaxy comes from a time when the universe was only 470 million years old—roughly 13.5 billion years ago. In the dual galaxy's structure, at least two consolidated black holes can be observed, each centered in a respective disk (the yellow points in the image below), and a region of compressed gas at the point of intersection suggests the presence of a supermassive object (the green point). The Infinity Galaxy, with three points marked where there could be black holes. Photograph: NASA, P. van Dokkum, G. Brammer The scientists think they might have viewed signs of a direct collapse black hole. Typically, black holes are formed when stars run out of fuel and collapse under their own gravity, but there's an alternative formation phenomenon debated in astrophysics—where a black hole forms via the collapse of gigantic gas cloud, without a star having formed. Such a possibility has been theorized, but this type of black hole has yet to be observed. The largest black holes found in the universe, supermassive black holes, have been identified in galaxies that formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. But what made their formation possible is not yet fully understood. Many supermassive black holes are believed to have come into being as a result of smaller black holes merging. But with very old supermassive black holes, there does not seem to have been enough time for the first stars in the universe to evolve, collapse into stellar-mass black holes, and then merge to colossal, supermassive sizes. So some astronomers have proposed an alternative origin for the universe's first supermassive black holes. According to this hypothesis, the black holes would not need to form from a star or arise from mergers. Instead, the theory goes, dense clumps of matter that in other instances gave rise to galaxies could have compressed directly into massive black holes. Scientists are currently investigating this scenario, although conclusive evidence of this having happened is still lacking. It is possible that the Infinity Galaxy offers revealing clues about the possibility of this second formation pathway. 'During the collision, the gas within these two galaxies shocks and compresses. This compression might just be enough to form a dense knot, which then collapsed into a black hole,' Pieter van Dokkum, a professor of astronomy and physics at Yale and a coauthor on the paper, said in a post on his university's website. 'While such collisions are rare events, similarly extreme gas densities are thought to have been quite common in the earliest cosmic epochs, when galaxies began to form,' Van Dokkum added. Scientists are also considering other, less spectacular alternatives as to what's going on in the Infinity Galaxy. Rather than being created through a direct collapse of gas, that potential extra black hole—the green spot in the image above—could instead be the signs of a black hole ejected from another galaxy as 'Infinity' passes through it. Another possible scenario is that this image actually shows the collision of three galaxies, with the third eclipsed by the other larger ones. For the moment, the team says the preliminary results are exciting. 'We can't say definitively that we have found a direct collapse black hole. But we can say that these new data strengthen the case that we're seeing a newborn black hole, while eliminating some of the competing explanations,' Van Dokkum concluded in a blog for NASA. This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Studying a galaxy far, far away could become easier with help from AI, says researcher
A recent Memorial University of Newfoundland graduate says his research may help study galaxies more efficiently — with help from Artificial Intelligence. As part of Youssef Zaazou's master's of science, he developed an AI-based image-processing technique that generates predictions of what certain galaxies may look like in a given wavelength of light. "Think of it as translating galaxy images across different wavelengths of light," Zaazou told CBC News over email. He did this by researching past methods for similar tasks, adapting current AI tools for his specific purposes, finding and curating the right dataset to train the models, along with plenty of trial and error. "Instead of … having to look at an entire region of sky, we can get predictions for certain regions and figure out, 'Oh this might be interesting to look at,'" said Zaazou. "So we can then prioritize how we use our telescope resources." Zaazou recently teamed up with his supervisors Terrence Tricco and Alex Bihlo to co-author a paper on his research in The Astrophysical Journal, which is published by The American Astronomical Society. Tricco says this research could also help justify allocation of high-demand telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope, which has a competitive process to assign its use. A future for AI in astronomy Both Tricco and Zaazou emphasised the research does not use AI to replace current methods but to augment them. Tricco says that Zaazou's findings have the potential to help guide future telescope development, and predict what astronomers might expect to see, making for more efficient exploration. Calling The Astrophysical Journal the "gold standard" for astronomy journals in the world, Tricco hopes the wider astronomical community will take notice of Zaazou's findings. "We want to have them be aware of this because as I was mentioning, AI, machine learning, and physics, astronomy, it's still very new for physicists and for astronomers, and they're a little bit hesitant about these tools," said Tricco. Tricco praised the growing presence of space research in general at Memorial University. "We are here, we're doing great research," he said. He added growing AI expertise is also transferable to other disciplines. "I think that builds into our just tech ecosystem here as well." 'Only the beginning' Though Zaazou's time as a Memorial University student is over, he hopes to see research in this area continue to grow. "I'm hoping this is the beginning of further research to be done," he said. Though Zaazou described his contribution to the field as merely a "pebble," he's happy to have been able to do his part. "I'm an astronomer. And it just feels great to be able to say that and to be able to have that little contribution because I just love the field and I'm fascinated by everything out there," said Zaazou. Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
CBC
4 days ago
- Science
- CBC
Studying a galaxy far, far away could become easier with help from AI, says researcher
A recent Memorial University of Newfoundland graduate says his research may help study galaxies more efficiently — with help from Artificial Intelligence. As part of Youssef Zaazou's master's of science, he developed an AI-based image-processing technique that generates predictions of what certain galaxies may look like in a given wavelength of light. "Think of it as translating galaxy images across different wavelengths of light," Zaazou told CBC News over email. He did this by researching past methods for similar tasks, adapting current AI tools for his specific purposes, finding and curating the right dataset to train the models, along with plenty of trial and error. "Instead of … having to look at an entire region of sky, we can get predictions for certain regions and figure out, 'Oh this might be interesting to look at,'" said Zaazou. "So we can then prioritize how we use our telescope resources." Zaazou recently teamed up with his supervisors Terrence Tricco and Alex Bihlo to co-author a paper on his research in The Astrophysical Journal, which is published by The American Astronomical Society. Tricco says this research could also help justify allocation of high-demand telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope, which has a competitive process to assign its use. A future for AI in astronomy Both Tricco and Zaazou emphasised the research does not use AI to replace current methods but to augment them. Tricco says that Zaazou's findings have the potential to help guide future telescope development, and predict what astronomers might expect to see, making for more efficient exploration. Calling The Astrophysical Journal the "gold standard" for astronomy journals in the world, Tricco hopes the wider astronomical community will take notice of Zaazou's findings. "We want to have them be aware of this because as I was mentioning, AI, machine learning, and physics, astronomy, it's still very new for physicists and for astronomers, and they're a little bit hesitant about these tools," said Tricco. Tricco praised the growing presence of space research in general at Memorial University. "We are here, we're doing great research," he said. He added growing AI expertise is also transferable to other disciplines. "I think that builds into our just tech ecosystem here as well." 'Only the beginning' Though Zaazou's time as a Memorial University student is over, he hopes to see research in this area continue to grow. "I'm hoping this is the beginning of further research to be done," he said. Though Zaazou described his contribution to the field as merely a "pebble," he's happy to have been able to do his part. "I'm an astronomer. And it just feels great to be able to say that and to be able to have that little contribution because I just love the field and I'm fascinated by everything out there," said Zaazou.
The National
7 days ago
- Science
- The National
Mysterious black hole spotted between colliding galaxies confounds researchers
A mysterious black hole spotted between two galaxies that are crashing into each other is challenging existing theories on how these powerful cosmic objects are formed. Researchers behind the study were surprised as black holes are typically found at the centre of galaxies, not floating between them. The discovery was made using Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which captured images of two distant galaxies merging in a collision. Released on Tuesday, the image shows the black hole appearing as a bright glow between the galaxies. 'Finding a black hole that's not in the nucleus of a massive galaxy is in itself unusual, but what's even more unusual is the story of how it may have gotten there,' said Dr Pieter van Dokkum, professor of astronomy and physics at Yale University and lead author of the study. 'It likely didn't just arrive there, but instead it formed there, and pretty recently. 'In other words, we think we're witnessing the birth of a supermassive black hole, something that has never been seen before.' Scientists have been studying black holes and how they form for decades as they remain one of the most mysterious objects in the universe and are so powerful that not even light can escape them. In this latest discovery, researchers believe that the black hole was formed without the usual step of a dying star collapsing. There are some leading theories on how supermassive black holes found in the centre of galaxies are formed. One says that they begin as leftovers of massive stars and when a star starts dying, it explodes and collapses under its own gravity to form a black hole. The newly formed small black holes then feed on gas and merges with others to become a supermassive, a process that can take billions of years. But this theory does not explain how some black holes appear fully formed in the early universe. This led scientists to consider the 'direct collapse' theory, a rare situation where a dense cloud of gas collapses directly into a black hole, skipping the usual step of a dying star. This latest discovery by the JWST could be the strongest evidence yet of that process. 'By looking at the data from the Infinity Galaxy, we think we've pieced together a story of how this could have happened here,' said Prof van Dokkum. 'Two disk galaxies collide, forming the ring structures of stars that we see. During the collision, the gas within these two galaxies shocks and compresses. 'This compression might just be enough to form a dense knot, which then collapsed into a black hole. 'We can't say definitively that we have found a direct collapse black hole. But we can say that these new data strengthen the case that we're seeing a newborn black hole, while eliminating some of the competing explanations.' The findings are part of a growing list of discoveries made by the telescope since its launch on Christmas Day in 2021. It is a joint project by Nasa and the European and Canadian space agencies to study the early universe and learn more about the Solar System. The telescope has already captured detailed images of galaxies forming less than 400 million years after the Big Bang. It has also provided new clues on the atmospheres of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars outside the Solar System. Other Nasa telescopes have made breakthrough discoveries, including the TESS space telescope, which observed a 'super-Earth planet' that has been flashing a repeated signal from 154 light-years away. The planet, named TOI-1846 b, is almost twice the size of Earth. It orbits a red dwarf, small and cool stars, that is about 40 per cent smaller in size and mass than the Sun. Scientists are hoping to use the JWST to study the planet's atmosphere, as its unique instruments would be capable of detecting any possible signs of water, vapour, methane, carbon dioxide or other gases.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
18 awesome images from the 2025 Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards
Astrophotography can make you feel two very different things: tiny and insignificant in a vast universe or absolutely and complete amazed at our vast universe. We wouldn't fault you for feeling either way. We're a tiny occupier of a medium-sized planet in a universe made of billions of galaxies. That universe is stunning to behold. For the photographers honored at the 2025 Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards, the universe is their muse. From our fiery sun to dazzling aurorae, and a sparkling Milky Way to captivating nebulae, the images capture our celestial neighborhood in beautiful detail. 'The ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is now in its seventeenth year and returns with an expert panel of judges from the worlds of art and astronomy,' a statement about the honorees says. 'The winners of the competition's nine categories, two special prizes and the overall winner will be announced on Thursday 11 September.'
