In terms of the history of the universe, supermassive black holes are a relative newcomer to the cosmic arena. Astronomers can't even agree on how they form — are they just regular black holes that kept on growing, are they created by some uncommon collapsing stellar matter or did they form right after the big bang and get a "head start" on accumulating mass? © Photo : NAOJMysterious Black Hole DETECTED in the Centre of the Milky Way A pair of studies published earlier this year investigate these key questions. A group of Italian astronomers led by Samuele Ronchini of Gran Sasso Science Institute in Italy has used the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space telescope to study one AGN with the romantic name PKS 2251+11, a black hole they described as "an ideal candidate" in their March 15 paper published on scholarly peer review site arXiv.org. That material gets sped up really … [Read more...] about Astronomers Probe Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes
Nasa black hole
Scientists Find Deep Space Supermassive Black Holes From the Dawn of Universe
Using the massive Subaru Telescope located at the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii, a multinational team of astronomers has managed to discover some 83 quasars powered by supermassive black holes as they were billions of years ago when the universe was relatively young. © Photo : NAOJMysterious Black Hole DETECTED in the Centre of the Milky WayThe scientists managed to accomplish this feat by focusing their attention on objects located about 13 billion light-years away from Earth, as due to the time it takes light originating from there reach our planet allows scientists to see these celestial bodies as they were eons ago. According to the statement posted on the university’s website, this discovery shows that there were many more black holes during that time period than it was previously thought, and reveals “for the first time” how common they were … [Read more...] about Scientists Find Deep Space Supermassive Black Holes From the Dawn of Universe
Mysterious Black Hole DETECTED in the Centre of the Milky Way
Researchers have for the first time managed to detect an intermediate-mass black hole which is thousands of times the mass of the Sun, the Science Daily reports. The discovery of the so-called “quiet” black hole was made by a team of astronomers led by Shunya Takekawa at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan who earlier tracked a swirling cloud of gas near the heart of the Milky Way. READ MORE: Astronomers Capture Black Hole Devouring Cosmic Doughnut for First Time After the astronomers measured the cloud’s motion with the help of the Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array, they concluded that the swirling was caused by a previously unknown black hole. READ MORE: New Black Hole Breakthrough May 'Rewrite Astronomy Textbooks' — Reports © NASA . ESA/C. Carreau'Second Largest Black Hole' in the Milky Way Galaxy FoundHe added that the hole’s detection … [Read more...] about Mysterious Black Hole DETECTED in the Centre of the Milky Way
Scientists Divided on Whether Blast Was Black Hole’s Birth or ‘Tidal Disruption’
The event, captured on June 16, 2018 by the NASA-funded ATLAS-1 telescope in Hawaii and several other sources, is known to have originated in a star-forming galaxy in the Hercules constellation, some 200 million light-years from Earth (meaning the event occurred while dinosaurs still roamed the earth). Over three days, astronomers witnessed an explosion of light equivalent to at least ten supernovas before proceeding to fade over the next several months. The event of was officially classified the AT2018cow, but was quickly nicknamed "the Cow" by astronomers. R. MARGUTTI/W. M. KECK OBSERVATORYAN IMAGE OF AT2018COW AND ITS HOST GALAXY OBTAINED ON AUGUST 17, 2018 USING W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY'S INSTRUMENT, THE DEEP IMAGING AND MULTI-OBJECT SPECTROGRAPH (DEIMOS). That's where the scientific consensus ends. At a meeting of the American Astronmical Society in Seattle on Thursday, researchers … [Read more...] about Scientists Divided on Whether Blast Was Black Hole’s Birth or ‘Tidal Disruption’
Galaxy hurtling towards Earth could ‘awaken supermassive black hole’ in Milky Way – and fling us into deep space
A ROGUE galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way – and it could spell disaster for the solar system. That's according to a shock new study, which claims the catastrophic impact could fling our star system into interstellar space and awaken a dormant black hole at the centre of our galaxy. This black hole would begin devouring any gas nearby and inflate up to ten times its original size, causing it to spew out deadly radiation. The warning comes from a group of scientists at the University of Durham, who studied the movement of satellite galaxies around our own Milky Way. Most larger galaxies are surrounded by a group of smaller satellite galaxies that orbit them, in a similar way to how bees move around a hive. Typically, these satellite galaxies have a quiet life and orbit around their hosts for many billions of years, but sometimes they sink to the centre and collide with their host. Researchers used computer simulations to track the movement of a satellite … [Read more...] about Galaxy hurtling towards Earth could ‘awaken supermassive black hole’ in Milky Way – and fling us into deep space