Black holes are really only dangerous if you get too close. Ha, who am I kidding. It turns out they may be responsible for ending star formation across the entire universe.
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When we first realized that black holes could have...

Most galaxies that we know of are spirals, including the Milky Way, but how do they form and keep their shape over billions of years?

Sometimes galaxies eat each other! It's actually pretty common. And it turns out that our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is pretty hungry.

Astrophysicist Scott Tremaine (Institute for Advanced Study) describes the intriguing relationship between galaxies and the enormous black holes at their cores.

Okay, so we are about 150 million years into the lifetime of the universe. We've got a bunch of hydrogen and helium and not much else. But then gravity takes over, and boom! We've got stars! How, you ask? Well you'd better watch this!

One type of object that some astronomers study is called a quasar. When these were first discovered, it was a bit confusing as to precisely what they are, which is why quasar stands for quasi-stellar object, since we thought they looked...