A new study connects the black hole’s famous ring of light to a compact region that marks the likely base of the jet, bringing scientists closer to understanding how black holes power some of the brightest beacons in the universe.
Recent News
Magnetic Superhighways Discovered in a Starburst Galaxy’s Winds
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has mapped a magnetic highway driving a powerful galactic wind into the nearby galaxy merger of Arp 220, revealing for the first time that its fast, molecular outflows are strongly magnetized and likely helping to drive metals, dust, and cosmic rays into the space around the galaxy.
Making Scientific Breakthroughs Possible in 2025
2025 was an incredibly productive year for AUI, marked by significant advances across astronomy, energy, advanced therapeutics, and STEM education and workforce development.
Breakthrough Listen, NSF Green Bank Telescope Probe Galactic Heart for Hidden Pulsars
Artist’s impression of the NSF Green Bank Telescope gathering data on the center of the Milky Way. The inset image shows the black hole at our Galaxy’s center, and a nearby candidate (unconfirmed) pulsar. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar / Breakthrough Listen
Astronomers discover possible millisecond pulsar, challenging ideas about how many neutron stars lurk around the Milky Way’s central black hole
Astronomers from Breakthrough Listen have used the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope (NSF GBT) to carry out one of the most sensitive pulsar searches ever aimed at the Milky Way’s Galactic Center.
The Galactic Center, home to the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* and dense stellar populations, presents unique scientific opportunities and challenges for understanding stellar dynamics, extreme astrophysical environments, and tests of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. In this research, recent Columbia University PhD graduate Karen Perez and collaborators conducted more than 20 hours of observations with the NSF GBT using the Breakthrough Listen Digital Backend, which enabled high-time and high-frequency resolution data products across a wide radio bandwidth. Of these observations, 11 hours were dedicated to the innermost 1.4 arcminutes of the Galactic Center, resulting in one of the deepest and most sensitive pulsar surveys ever performed toward this region.
These observations uncovered a promising candidate for a millisecond pulsar, with a rotation period of 8.19 milliseconds. If confirmed it would be the first such object found in the Galactic Center.
Find links to the paper, press materials, artwork, and the datasets and software at the University of Oxford Physics Department and the Breakthrough Listen Research Group.
About NRAO
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
This news article was originally published on the NRAO website on February 9, 2026.
Recent News
New Event Horizon Telescope Results Trace M87 Jet Back to Its Black Hole
A new study connects the black hole’s famous ring of light to a compact region that marks the likely base of the jet, bringing scientists closer to understanding how black holes power some of the brightest beacons in the universe.
Magnetic Superhighways Discovered in a Starburst Galaxy’s Winds
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has mapped a magnetic highway driving a powerful galactic wind into the nearby galaxy merger of Arp 220, revealing for the first time that its fast, molecular outflows are strongly magnetized and likely helping to drive metals, dust, and cosmic rays into the space around the galaxy.
Making Scientific Breakthroughs Possible in 2025
2025 was an incredibly productive year for AUI, marked by significant advances across astronomy, energy, advanced therapeutics, and STEM education and workforce development.