Posted 01.14.2008 at 11:54 am
1 Comment
A black hole wreaks all sorts of havoc in its cosmic neighborhood, pulling in and stretching out matter, spewing jets and slowing time to a near stand-still. Now astrophysicists have added a new phenomenon to the black hole's list of tricks: Light echoes.
Black holes are often surrounded by spinning discs of burning gas that can emit X-ray bursts. Because the black hole warps the surrounding space-time so intensely, though, the photons from a single one of these bursts don't always arrive at the same time. Read more on the new phenomenon, announced at this week's American Astronomical Society Meeting, here.—Gregory Mone
1 Comment
To comment, please Login.
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
June 2012: Invent Your Own Anything
The 6th annual Invention Awards are here, from an inflatable tourniquet to a better lobster trap to spring-loaded hocket skates. This issue is all about the celebration of invention.
Plus: Making synthetic biology breakthroughs in a garage, building a constantly-moving ping-pong table, and a ridiculously overpowered barbecue.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Technology
- Engineer Details Plans to Build a Real, Burj-Dubai-Sized Starship Enterprise in 20 Years
- My Three Hours With the Most Violent Videogame I've Ever Seen
- Even the Maya Didn't Think the World Would End in 2012
- 100-Year Starship Project Forges Ahead With First Round of Funding
- Do You "Possess" What You View Online?
- Video: Amazing Coating For Bottles' Interiors Lets Ketchup Flow Like Water
- Video: Bizarrely Realistic Japanese Robotic Buttocks Responds to Slaps
- The Dawn of the Commercial Space Age is (Probably) Happening This Weekend
- Living in the Future: Multitouch, or How I Learned to Love the Mac
- Russian Space Chief: 'We’re Talking About Establishing Permanent Bases' On the Moon
Most Emailed
Technology
- Video: In Record-Breaking Parachuteless Skydive, Man Jumps 2,400 Feet Into a Pile of Boxes
- Video: Paratrooping Roomba-Style Drone Concept Could Help Clean Oil Spills
- Snazzy All-in-One "Vancouver Poles" to Replace Ugly Urban Forest of Cell Towers and Cables
- Would You Ride This Pencil-Shaped Capsule To Space?
- Russian Space Chief: 'We’re Talking About Establishing Permanent Bases' On the Moon
- Oxford Launches New Hunt for Yeti DNA Samples
- New 'Mechanical Metamaterial' Expands When You Compress It, Shrinks When You Stretch It
- Video: Amazing Coating For Bottles' Interiors Lets Ketchup Flow Like Water
- Giant European Robofish Sniff Out Ocean Pollutants Autonomously
- 100-Year Starship Project Forges Ahead With First Round of Funding
Most Viewed
Technology
- Living in the Future: Multitouch, or How I Learned to Love the Mac
- Video: In Record-Breaking Parachuteless Skydive, Man Jumps 2,400 Feet Into a Pile of Boxes
- Video: Paratrooping Roomba-Style Drone Concept Could Help Clean Oil Spills
- Snazzy All-in-One "Vancouver Poles" to Replace Ugly Urban Forest of Cell Towers and Cables
- Would You Ride This Pencil-Shaped Capsule To Space?
- Russian Space Chief: 'We’re Talking About Establishing Permanent Bases' On the Moon
- Oxford Launches New Hunt for Yeti DNA Samples
- New 'Mechanical Metamaterial' Expands When You Compress It, Shrinks When You Stretch It
- Video: Amazing Coating For Bottles' Interiors Lets Ketchup Flow Like Water
- Giant European Robofish Sniff Out Ocean Pollutants Autonomously
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
My head just exploded