Still Life
University Park Airport Emergency Response Exercise
Commencement across Penn State: Spring 2012
Spring commencement 2012 under way
Penn State, Moroccan students problem-solve together
Finals Week Spring Semester 2012
Painting the Lines at Beaver Stadium
Did They Get It Right? - RedTails
Iconic Penn State elm taken down over spring break 2012
We ... are Penn State (December 19, 2011)
Disease stricken matching elm tree slated for removal
Penn State's creamery, from the cow to the cone
Astronomers have discovered what appear to be two of the earliest and most primitive supermassive black holes known. The discovery, based on observations with the NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and other space observatories, will be published in the March 18 edition of the scientific journal Nature. Black holes are beastly distortions of space and time. The most massive and active ones lurk at the cores of galaxies, and are usually surrounded by doughnut-shaped structures of dust and gas that feed and sustain the growing black holes. These hungry supermassive black holes are called quasars. "The main goal of this collaboration is to determine if these very first quasars -- which are very distant from Earth in space and time -- are feeding and growing in the same way as do quasars that are closer to Earth," said Niel Brandt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University. (more)
A supermassive black hole lurking deep in the heart of a distant active galaxy has been probed more closely than ever before by a team of astronomers that includes Penn State Professor of Astronomy Niel Brandt. Using new X-ray data from the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite, the team observed the galaxy -- known as 1H0707-495 -- for four 48-hour-long periods, revealing the innermost depths of the galaxy.
"The black hole at the heart of this galaxy appears to be eating the material within its reach at a remarkably high rate," Brandt said. "Our observations reveal that the black hole appears to be spinning very rapidly and is eating matter so quickly that it verges on the theoretical limit of its eating ability, swallowing the equivalent of two Earths per hour." (more)
Physicists at Penn State have provided a mechanism by which information can be recovered from black holes, those regions of space where gravity is so strong that, according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, not even light can escape. The team's findings pave the way toward ending a decades-long debate sparked by renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. The team's work were published in the May 20 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters. (more)
A team of astronomers including Niel Brandt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, has discovered a neutron star emitting an extended stream of powerful X rays, marking the first time such an extended X-ray jet has been detected originating from any class of object other than black holes. (more)
