This Black Hole Has a Cosmic Wingspan
Astronomers have discovered a black hole emitting energy in jets longer than the width of 140 Milky Way galaxies.
By Dennis Overbye
Mr. Overbye's reporting can range from zero-gravity fashion shows and science in the movies to the status of Pluto, the death of the Earth and the fate of the universe.
He joined The Times in 1998 as deputy science editor, resuming a newspaper career that had been disrupted in the ninth grade when he lost his job as editor of the junior high paper after being in a classroom after hours where erasers were thrown. In the meantime, he graduated from M.I.T. with a physics degree, failed to finish a novel and worked as a writer and editor at Sky and Telescope and Discover magazines.
He has written two books: "Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, The Scientific Search for the Secret of the Universe" (HarperCollins 1991, and Little, Brown, 1999), and "Einstein in Love, A Scientific Romance" (Viking, 2000). As a result of the latter, there are few occasions for which he cannot rustle up a quotation - appropriate or not - from Albert Einstein.
In 2001, realizing that the reporters were having more fun and got to take cooler trips than editors, he switched to being a reporter. He has been covering the universe for more than 30 years, but lately he professes to be amazed that a huge chunk of his work is devoted to two topics that did not exist only a decade or so ago: the proliferation of planets beyond our own solar system; and the mysterious dark energy that seems to be souping up the expansion of the universe and spurring metaphysical-sounding debates among astronomers and physicists.
He lives with his wife, Nancy, and daughter, Mira, in Morningside Heights. In their house, he reports, Pluto is still a planet.
Astronomers have discovered a black hole emitting energy in jets longer than the width of 140 Milky Way galaxies.
By Dennis Overbye
Palomar Observatory bids farewell to a tradition of napkin rings, cowbells and astronomical table conversation.
By Dennis Overbye
For the 25th anniversary of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA produced ghostly time-lapse videos of two centuries-old stellar eruptions.
By Dennis Overbye
Astronomers have found the earliest and most distant galaxy yet.
By Dennis Overbye
A new map of the center of the Milky Way galaxy reveals details of its magnetic fields
By Dennis Overbye
Scientists may have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of that mysterious cosmic force. That could be good news for the fate of the universe.
By Dennis Overbye
The late Jay Pasachoff inspired generations of students to become astronomers by dragging them to the ends of the Earth for a few precarious moments of ecstasy.
By Dennis Overbye
Astronomers have gotten better at tracking the motions of stars just beyond the solar system. But that’s made it harder to predict Earth’s future and reconstruct its past.
By Dennis Overbye
The National Science Foundation takes a step (just one) toward an “extremely large telescope.”
By Dennis Overbye
Scientists debate whether this object is the brightest in the visible universe, as a new study suggests.
By Dennis Overbye
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