For something so dark it could define the word, black holes sure seem to be generating a lot of light at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C. At a press conference yesterday morning, several scientists spoke about their recent research into these objects, whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape them. Fortunately for astronomers, a black hole can radiate lots of energy when surrounding matter...

Perplexed by planets? Confused by cosmology? Baffled by black holes? Then send in your questions to Astronomy magazine at askastro@astronomy.com . If you have an astronomy question about observing, the planets, stars, cosmology, or astronomy history, send it in! Five are selected each month for publication in the Ask Astro section of Astronomy magazine. If your question is selected, we will forward it to an expert for his or her response. Then, the...

“Wanted: a few hundred thousand computers with a little spare time on their hands.” That’s the basic job qualification if you (and your personal computer) want to join Einstein@Home, a massive international project that uses donated personal computer time to crunch data for real scientists. The project has been going on for several years . This week, Einstein@Home announced it will begin to analyze data from a new source: the giant radio telescope...

Well, Wednesday was my shortened day. I was at the meeting for only the morning. In that time I went to three press conferences and wandered around some of the posters … all before 1:15 p.m. Then I had to bug off to grab my shuttle to the airport. Today was a lot of high-energy and cosmology — the really cool stuff, in my opinion. The first press conference covered an interesting black-hole observation . For years astronomers have had their own “chicken...

Did a parent, boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, supervisor, etc., ever say to you in an argument, “You’re not the center of the universe, you know!” Well, sorry to disappoint, but you’re not the center of the galaxy either. That honor belongs to a black hole that weighs between 4,250,000 and 4,370,000 times the Sun’s mass and lies somewhere between 26,028 and 27,169 light-years from Earth. How do I know? Because German astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel and...

I sat down with Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Rich Talcott to learn more about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and its September 10 test. For additional background information on the LHC, visit Astronomy.com . UPDATE: LHC successfully passed its September 10 test. Here is the transcript of my conversation with Rich: What is the Large Hadron Collider? Well the LHC, as the name implies, is something that’s big, that’s going to collide elementary...

Have NASA astronomers discovered the black hole in the Milky Way’s center where lost socks turn into X rays? Tune in next week to find out. Ute Kraus (Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik) NASA has found something amazing in our galaxy. Unfortunately, it’s not saying just what it has found — until next week, when it collects enough reporters for a press conference. Or, if you want it from the horse’s mouth, here is the exciting, taunting first...

Best known to astronomical trivia buffs as the man who coined the term “black hole,” University of Texas physicist John A. Wheeler died this morning at the age of 96. Wheeler “was legendary for his way with words, coining such terms as wormholes, quantum foam, black holes, and the wave function of the universe,” writes Wheeler’s former student and current University of Chicago physicist Daniel Holz over at Cosmic Variance . Wheeler’s scientific resume...

Yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a nice summary of efforts by the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee to detect gravitational waves. The article focuses on NEMO , the $1.8 million, 1,560 CPU, Beowulf-class computing cluster built and operated by the school’s gravitational-wave group. (Ah, I love that kind of talk.) NEMO was commissioned in 2006. Since then, it’s been chugging through data produced by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational...

One of the pleasures of attending American Astronomical Society meetings is strolling through a sea of poster papers. A poster paper is exactly what it sounds like — it’s an oversized page that summarizes the results of a single study. Now and then, you spot displays where the science comes mixed with whimsy. Such is the case with “Discovery and Interpretation of an X-ray Period in the Galactic Center Source CXOGC J174536–2856,” a study led by Valerie...