Research Highlights

There is an enormous black hole at the center of every galaxy, gobbling up matter over eons of time - some for as long as 13 billion years. One of the great questions of modern astronomy is: Where did the seeds for all these black holes come from? Not, as you might think, from the fiery collapse of massive hot stars formed in the early Universe, says Fellow Mitch Begelman. That may well be how new, much smaller black holes are formed, even now. However, despite long-standing theories to the contrary, Begelman believes that ancient supernovae cannot account for the genesis of the black holes as massive as a million suns at the center of galaxies.

Galaxy clusters contain enormous clouds of gas whose cooling should result in the formation of a multitude of new stars. But that's not what NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is detecting. Instead there's a whole lot less gas cooling and new star formation than scientists had predicted. Perhaps the most mysterious discovery of all is that the clusters are humming – a low B-flat 57 octaves below middle C. The hum originates from ripples of sound waves washing through great galactic gas clouds surrounding supermassive black holes.

Black holes are pretty strange, sucking in not only nearby matter but also the space around it. These cosmic vacuum cleaners are powered by thin, gaseous accretion disks in orbit around them. Something drives the orbiting gas to spiral in toward the black hole, where all trace of it disappears forever into the singularity. One of the exciting challenges in astrophysics is to figure out the physics driving this process, which keeps black holes growing for billions of years after they're formed.

Gamma-ray jets produced deep within massive stars can blow apart the star when they emerge, creating a supernova. The jets are very light and travel near the speed of light toward the star's surface. They are created by a complex interaction of a black hole, an accretion disk, and very strong magnetic fields that come into being when a massive star depletes its supply of hydrogen fuel and falls into itself.