This is an artist's conception of the event horizon surrounding the object, Cygnus XR-1.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of STScI, NASA, ESA
Spiraling into A Black Hole
News story originally written on January 16, 2001
Everyone is awed by
black holes. How could there be a thing that just devours all light and matter around it...so that matter can never escape?!? Scientists using observations from
the Chandra X-ray Observatory and
the Hubble Space Telescope have found material spiraling into black holes!
Both teams have shown evidence for event horizons surrounding black holes.
Event horizons are the point around a black hole from which nothing (not even light!) can escape! Only black holes have event horizons, so finding an event horizon is finding a black hole.
This all sounds like something off the sci-fi channel, but in reality, these findings took an awful lot of hard work! Use the links below to learn more about these findings.
You might also be interested in:
NASA revealed a few of the many images that will come from its newest telescope. Since first being deployed July 23, the Chandra X Observatory has had no problems. It first made a series of engine firings,
...more
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was one of the most important exploration tools of the past two decades, and will continue to serve as a great resource well into the new millennium. The HST found numerous
...more
It was another exciting and frustrating year for the space science program. It seemed that every step forward led to one backwards. Either way, NASA led the way to a great century of discovery. Unfortunately,
...more
The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 29th at 2:19 p.m. EST. The weather was great as Discovery took 8 1/2 minutes to reach orbit. This was the United States' 123rd
...more
A moon was discovered orbiting the asteroid, Eugenia. This is only the second time in history that a satellite has been seen circling an asteroid. A special mirror allowed scientists to find the moon
...more
Will Russia ever put the service module for the International Space Station in space? NASA officials want an answer from the Russian government. The necessary service module is currently waiting to be
...more
A coronal mass ejection (CME) happened on the Sun early last month. The material that was thrown out from this explosion passed the ACE spacecraft. The SWICS instrument on ACE has produced a new and very
...more
