The U.S. National Science Foundation has invested over $2.1 million in eight projects through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF EPSCoR). This investment, in collaboration with NASA, aims to strengthen research infrastructure, advance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent development at six institutions in five U.S. states, and develop the next generation of leaders in STEM.

Milky Way’s supermassive black hole has a mysterious past, and scientists have found some evidence to explain its behaviour. The supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, is located 26,000 light-years away from Earth in the center of our galaxy.

Astronomers studying the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole have found “compelling evidence” that could finally help explain its mysterious past. Located 26,000 light-years away in the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A* is a gargantuan tear in space-time that is 4 million times the mass of our sun and 14.6 million miles (23.5 million kilometers) wide.

Large galaxies like ours are hosts to Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs.) They can be so massive that they resist comprehension, with some of them having billions of times more mass than the Sun. Ours, named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is a little more modest at about four million solar masses.

Astronomers studying the Milky Way's supermassive black hole have found "compelling evidence" that could finally help explain its mysterious past. Located 26,000 light-years away in the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A* is a gargantuan tear in space-time that is 4 million times the mass of our sun and 14.6 million miles (23.5 million kilometers) wide.

The mystery of how supermassive black holes, which can be millions of times more massive than the sun and sit at the heart of most galaxies, came to exist is one of the great questions in astrophysics.