Supermassive black hole binaries form naturally when galaxies merge, but scientists have only confidently observed a very few of these systems that are widely separated. Black hole binaries that closely orbit each other have not yet been measured. In a paper published today in Physical Review Letters, the researchers suggest hunting down the hidden systems by searching for repeating flashes of light from individual stars lying behind the black holes as they are temporarily magnified by gravitational lensing as the binary orbits.
Gravitational lensing technique unveils supermassive black hole pairs
-
Voters might think less taxes would equate to more money in their pockets, but a new study shows that at the local level, the opposite may actually be true. Economists and politicians have weighed the [...]
-
In mid-2023, around the time Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X but before he discontinued free academic access to the platform’s data, my colleagues and I looked for signs of social bot accounts posting content [...]
-
Researchers in the School of Psychology at the University of Kent have found that sharing conspiracy theories on their dating profiles can seriously damage first impressions and reduce romantic interest, but this reaction depends on [...]
-
A three-pronged research project seeks to empower communities, policymakers, and law enforcement agencies by improving access to and understanding of police use-of-force rules.This post was originally published on this site
-
A new national study finds a concerning surge in teen “sexting,” which frequently exposes them to serious risks, including sextortion, coercion and privacy violations. Sexting involves sending or receiving sexually suggestive images or video, while [...]
-
Conversations about Philippine jail congestion often begin and end with statistics: thousands of case backlogs, cells built for 50 crammed with 200 bodies, and facilities straining at 300% to 400% beyond capacity. Yet these numbers [...]
-
Living near other lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people makes LGB people significantly more likely to vote, according to new research published in The Journal of Politics. When the share of LGB residents in a [...]
-
New research from The University of Manchester has shown that debates and resistance about wearing face masks go back a lot further than the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Meng Zhang, a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at [...]
-
Few countries talk about “ghettos” the way Denmark does. For more than a decade, the term has shaped national debates about migration, integration and who truly belongs.This post was originally published on this site
-
When it comes to national politics, Americans are fiercely divided across a range of issues, including gun control, election security and vaccines. It’s not new for Republicans and Democrats to be at odds over issues, [...]
