(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Using observations from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite and the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has identified the moment when a black hole in our galaxy launched super-fast knots of gas into space.

(National Radio Astronomy Observatory) Simultaneous radio and X-ray observations allow astronomers to calculate exact time when superfast “bullets” of material were ejected from the close vicinity of a black hole.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Using observations from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite and the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has identified the moment when a black hole in our galaxy launched super-fast knots of gas into space.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Using observations from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite and the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has identified the moment when a black hole in our galaxy launched super-fast knots of gas into space.

• NASA’s RXTE Helps Pinpoint Launch of ‘Bullets’ in a Black Hole’s Jet
  Using observations from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite and the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has identified the moment when a black hole in our galaxy launched superfast knots of gas into space.
• NASA’s Online Radio Station Rocks Smartphones
  NASA’s Third Rock Radio just got mobile. Updates to the NASA App for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android now include a feature to listen to the agency’s new online alternative rock radio station.

(Washington University in St. Louis) NASA has just funded a balloon-borne telescope sensitive to the polarization of light that will float at an altitude of 130,000 feet for a day. The balloon will stare fixedly at two black holes in our galaxy, an accreting neutron star, the Crab nebula, an extragalactic black hole and other targets yet to be chosen. One of the first instruments of its type, it should be able to make the direct measurements of the spin rate of black holes, among other advancements.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) An international team of astronomers has identified a candidate for the smallest-known black hole using data from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The evidence comes from a specific type of X-ray pattern, nicknamed a “heartbeat” because of its resemblance to an electrocardiogram. The pattern until now has been recorded in only one other black hole system.

(National Science Foundation) Astronomers recently discovered the most massive black holes to date. Found in two separate nearby galaxies roughly 300 million light years away from Earth, each black hole has a mass equivalent to 10 billion suns.

• NASA’S Swift Satellite Spots Black Hole Devouring A Star
  Two studies appearing in the Aug. 25 issue of the journal Nature provide new insights into a cosmic accident that has been streaming X-rays toward Earth since late March.
• NASA And ATK Full-Scale Solid Rocket Motor Test Set For Sept. 8
  NASA and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) will conduct a full-scale test of a five-segment, solid rocket motor at the ATK Aerospace Systems test facility in Promontory, Utah, at 4:05 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Sept. 8.

(University of York) New research by scientists at the University of York gives a fresh perspective on the physics of black holes. Conventional thinking asserts that black holes swallow everything that gets too close and that nothing can escape, but the study by professor Samuel Braunstein and Dr. Manas Patra suggests that information could escape from black holes after all.