A panoramic image of the M87 black hole.

A black hole is a place in space where the gravitational field is so strong that not even light can escape it. Astronomers classify black holes into three categories by size: miniature, stellar, and supermassive black holes. Miniature black holes could have a mass smaller than our Sun and supermassive black holes could have a mass equivalent to billions of our Sun.

Thanks to data from a magnified, multiply imaged supernova, a team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has successfully used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion rate of the universe. Their data provide insight into a longstanding debate in the field and could help scientists more accurately determine the universe’s age and better understand the cosmos.

The work is divided into two papers, respectively published in Science and The Astrophysical Journal.

In astronomy, there are two precise measurements of the expansion of the universe, also called the “Hubble constant.” One is calculated from nearby observations of supernovae, and the second uses the “cosmic microwave background,” or radiation that began to stream freely through the universe shortly after the Big Bang.

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has captured a “GigaMoon” — a 1.3-gigapixel highly-detailed image of the Moon made from 280,000 photos.

It’s an image that McCarthy has wanted to capture for a long time, with multiple attempts thwarted by poor conditions.

Lurking in the darkness of space, black holes are notorious for shredding stars that venture too close, and then gobbling them up. But astronomers have had only a rudimentary understanding of that dramatic process.

A new study sheds some light. Astronomers have spotted streams of star matter that came full circle around black holes and bumped into themselves. Such collisions were long theorized, but the new observations for the first time provide a direct look at the early stages of disk-forming around black holes.

Making a wormhole that a human could theoretically travel through would require an upside-down universe and negative energy.

By Jon Cartwright

A new way to gauge the universe’s expansion rate has delivered a confusing result that may conflict with previous related measurements.