FP TrendsJuly 15, 2020 09:13:44 IST
A team of researchers led by scientists from Cardiff University have said they are one step closer to understanding how a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is born.
The results of the study have been published in the Monthly notices from the Royal Astronomical Society.
According to a Cardiff University statementThey have been able to do it using a new technique that allowed them to approach one of the cosmic objects and reveal it in detail.
A super massive black hole captured by the Hubble and ALMA telescope. Image credit: Cardiff University.
Scientists are still not sure what caused the SMBHs. They could have been born shortly after the big bang through ‘direct collapse’ or grew much later from ‘seed’ black holes that formed after the death of massive stars.
According to the report, if the above method were true, SMBHs were born with extremely large masses and would have a fixed minimum size. However, if the latter were true, SMBHs would start relatively small and grow over time feeding on stars and gas clouds around them.
A report in Phys.org He mentions that the Cardiff-led team has revealed one of the lowest-mass SMBH ever observed at the center of a nearby galaxy, weighing less than a million times the mass of our sun.
According to the report, SMBH lives in a galaxy known as Mirach’s Ghost due to its proximity to the star Mirach.
The findings were made using the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA), a state-of-the-art telescope located high up on the Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes.
Speaking about the discovery, Dr. Tim Davis of Cardiff University’s Faculty of Physics and Astronomy said: The SMBH at Mirach’s Ghost appears to have a mass within the range predicted by “direct collapse” models.
He then added that he is currently active and is swallowing gas, so some of the direct collapse models may not be true. However, he explained: “This alone is not enough to definitely distinguish the difference between the ‘seed’ image and the ‘direct collapse’, we need to understand the statistics for that, but this is a massive step in the right direction. “
The international team of researchers approached the heart of a small nearby galaxy, called NGC404, allowing them to observe the gas clouds surrounding the SMBH at its center.
They were able to resolve the gas clouds at the heart of the galaxy and reveal the true nature of SMBH at the center of the galaxy.
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