Black Hole
November 14, 2022
Using two Maunakea Observatories to follow up a star’s tiny wobbling motion detected by the orbiting Gaia satellite, astronomers have located the nearest black hole to the Sun. At 1600 light years, Gaia BH1, a companion to a Sun-like star, is some three times closer than the previous record holder, and appears to pose some interesting challenges for our understanding […]
June 20, 2022
Observations from the James Clerk Maxwell telescope and the Submillimeter Array, both located on Maunakea, contributed to the production of the first-ever image of the shadow of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, by the “Event Horizon Telescope”. This incredibly challenging observation builds on the more than 20-year history of studies of the Galactic Center […]
September 25, 2020
In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope produced the first-ever image of a black hole. The object, located in the center of the galaxy M87, was given the Hawai`ian name of Pōwehi. Its image appeared as a ring with a bright crescent edge, produced by photons orbiting around the black hole. To make these images, this unique telescope uses a […]
June 25, 2020
Using the UKIRT, Gemini North and Keck telescopes on Maunakea, and combining with observations from observatories in Chile (including Gemini South and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory), astronomers have identified a quasar in the distant Universe, which is powered by a black hole about one and a half billion times as massive as our Sun. This quasar, the second most distant […]