On the Trail of Monster Black Holes

摘要

Across the universe there are trillions of black holes-objects so compact that their gravitational pull prevents anything from escaping, even light. Some of them formerly blazed brilliantly as stars before collapsing catastrophically. Others, far more massive and ancient, sit at the center of galaxies, including our own. When they draw in material from their surroundings, such monster black holes can shoot out jets of energetic particles that stretch for hundreds of thousands of light-years, as in the galaxy Hercules A.