Showing posts with label European Space Agency's XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray satellite observatory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label European Space Agency's XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray satellite observatory. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Black Hole Spins at Nearly the Speed of Light


A superfast black hole nearly 60 million light-years away appears to be pushing the ultimate speed limit of the universe, a new study says.

For the first time, astronomers have managed to measure the rate of spin of a supermassive black hole—and it's been clocked at 84 percent of the speed of light, or the maximum allowed by the law of physics.