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Space

Super-bright black holes could reveal if the universe is pixelated

Space-time may not be continuous but instead made up of many discrete bits – and we may be able to see their effects near the edges of unusually bright black holes

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

26 November 2024

Artist’s representation of a galaxy with a brilliant quasar at its centre

NASA, ESA and J. Olmsted (STScI)

Space-time, the so-called fabric of physical reality, may be made of tiny, discrete pieces stitched together. A preliminary analysis of the way matter orbits quasars suggests we could find evidence of this cosmic quilt in the universe’s most extreme neighbourhoods.

Much of the understanding we have of the make-up of our universe comes from probing matter at smaller and smaller scales. Think of fluids, says

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