NASA’s astronomers divide the unavoidable wells of gravity into two categories, based on their weight and size. Stellar-mass black holes are the most common type but these black holes are typically only 40 miles across and 10 times heavier than the Sun. The much more terrifying type are the supermassive giants found at the dead centre of most galaxies.
Supermassive black holes are ‘sinister’ monsters that weight millions to hundreds of millions of times more than our Sun.
Our Milky Way galaxy is home to one of these supermassive black holes – Sagittarius A* – only 26,000 light-years from Earth.
But what is even more terrifying according to NASA, is the discovery supermassive black holes can be found in “every direction you look”.
NASA said: “You know those nightmares where no matter how fast you try to run you never seem to get anywhere?
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“Black holes are a sinister possible version of that dream – especially because they’re real.
“If you get too close to a black hole, there is no possibility of escape.
“Just last year our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope traced an otherworldly ghost particle back to one of these monster black holes, providing additional insight into the many signals we’re picking up from some of the most feared creatures in the cosmic deep.
“But it gets worse. Out Hubble Space Telescope revealed that these things are hidden in the hearts of nearly every galaxy in the universe.
“That means supermassive black holes lurk in the shadows of the night sky in every direction you look.”
Black holes are a sinister possible version of that dream
NASA
But black holes are not the only cosmic terror lurking in the void of space.
In a Halloween-themed blog post on Tumblr, NASA outlined some of the scariest objects discovered by astronomers.
NASA said: “A quiet, starry night sky might not seem like a very spooky spectacle, but space can be a creepy place.
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“Monsters lurk in the shadowy depths of the universe, sometimes hidden in plain sight.
“Many of them are invisible to our eyes, so we have to use special telescopes to see them.”
Rogue asteroids and comets are another of the “monsters” inhabiting space.
In an eerie twist of events, astronomers in 2015 discovered an icy comet with an incredibly skull-like appearance.
The so-called Halloween Asteroid or Great Pumpkin has since been confirmed to most likely be a dead comet.
NASA said: “On Halloween a few years ago, an eerie-looking object known as 2015 TB145 sped across the night sky.
“Scientists observing it with our Infrared Telescope Facility determined that it was most likely a dead comet.
“It’s important to study objects like comets and asteroids because they’re dangerous if they cross Earth’s path — just ask the dinosaurs.”
The Skull Comet last flew past Earth on November 11, 2018, at a distance more than 25 million miles (40 million km).
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