What is a Black Hole? | David Rives

How do you detect something out in space that’s invisible? Well, you observe how the objects near it behave. This gives you clues about the nature of the invisible body. And that’s exactly how scientists have discovered and described black holes. Black holes are not visible through standard technology or telescopes, even though they’ve been … Read More

What is a Quasar? | David Rives

In the 1950s astronomers were using radio telescopes to learn more about the heavens and they discovered something very strange. These objects, which they named “quasi-stellar objects” (Quasars for short), were small but extremely bright despite being very, very, very far away. What were they? Well, future research revealed Quasars are feeding black holes or … Read More

What is a Pulsar? | David Rives

If you ask the average person to name some things found in “outer space” they’ll probably name the moon, stars, planets, and maybe asteroids and comets. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the incredible diversity found throughout the cosmos. Today let’s look at pulsars. We’ve only known about pulsars since the 1960’s, … Read More