This Chandra X-ray image of the quasar PKS 1127-145, a highly luminous source of X-rays and visible light about 10 billion light years from Earth, shows an enormous X-ray jet that extends at least a million light years from the quasar.[More...]

Although invisible by definition, black holes stir up highly visible commotion in their surroundings. Quasars, for example, are among the brightest objects in the Universe, sometimes outshining entire galaxies. Supermassive black holes are the engines powering this incredible outpouring of light. Matter falling toward a black hole, attracted by gravity, heats to extreme temperatures and shines brightly. As much as a fifth of the Universe’s light might be produced by material spiraling into black holes, a phenomenon called accretion.

Thanks to the high temperatures, black holes are prodigious producers of X-rays. The Uhuru X-ray satellite studied the first black hole candidate, Cygnus X-1, in the early 1970s. Since then X-ray satellites such as NASA's Chandra X ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton have revealed that black holes are everywhere. Our Milky Way Galaxy must have millions of undetected stellar-mass black holes dotted throughout its spiral arms, and astronomers have found a single supermassive black hole in its core.

The Black Hole Finder Probe, as its name implies, will locate new black holes, determine different classes of black holes, and reveal their role in shaping galaxies. Observational evidence has accumulated that supermassive black holes are intimately connected to their host galaxies, regulating how fast they grow and form new stars. Without black holes, the universe today would be a very different place.

A new wide-field panorama reveals more than a thousand supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies, some up to several billion times more massive than the sun. [More...]

But roughly two-thirds of these supermassive black holes are hidden from view, protected behind a shroud of gas and dust blown outward by the black holes themselves. Only the most penetrating forms of light, such as high-energy X-rays, can slice through the shroud. The Black Hole Finder Probe will likely have high-energy X-ray detectors with sensitivities greater than any satellite operating today. One of the proposed missions is the Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST), while the other is the Coded Aperture Survey Telescope for Energetic Radiation (CASTER).

This black hole census will finally allow astronomers to understand how these exotic objects have changed over time. It will also help us appreciate their role in the past and future evolution of our Universe.