compact object
-
How Supermassive Black Holes Work
We first took a peek at supermassive black holes back in our discussion of galaxies. But now that we’ve covered a few types of active galaxies, it’s time to take a deeper dive. Okay, I guess we won’t really be…
-
Stellar Evolution Demystified
Whaddya know…after what seems like a geological age, we’re finally done with stellar evolution! And we’ve covered a truly ridiculous amount of information. We’ve covered a star’s relatively gentle, humble beginnings within the collapsing cores of giant molecular clouds (or…
-
How to Find a Black Hole
Okay, good question. How the heck do you find an object that emits no radiation? Astronomers find — and study — just about everything in the universe using the radiation it emits or reflects. So…what happens when the object we’re…
-
Black Holes: What the Movies Get Wrong
Any of you recognize this? To those who don’t, it probably looks like a pretty unimpressive, blurry ring. In fact, this is the first ever image of a black hole, taken with an interferometer the size of the Earth. If…
-
What is a Black Hole, Really?
If you’re a sci-fi fan, you’ve probably seen these in movies. And I’m guessing you’ve heard a lot about them in pop culture. The problem is, pop culture and movies don’t do a very good job of describing black holes.…
-
What About Binary Systems?
In the constellation of Perseus, there is a star named Algol that exists in a binary system. The binary consists of two stars: a massive main-sequence star and a less massive giant. According to what we’ve explored so far…that doesn’t…
-
What are White Dwarfs?
Now that we’re finally talking about white dwarfs, we’re getting into the really cool stuff. In my last post, we explored planetary nebulae, and we left off with a question: where does the fast wind that forms planetary nebulae come…
