Astronomers have discovered a new way to analyze active black holes, revealing that their microwave and X-ray emissions are similar at different burn rates. This idea, which challenges previous theories, could significantly advance our understanding of the influence of black holes on the evolution of galaxies.
Astronomers in Cardiff, together with international partners, have revealed a new method of studying how black holes celebrate.
An international team of astronomers has discovered a completely new method for studying the behavior of active black holes.
They observed a sample of active black holes, located at the centers of 136 galaxies, and found a consistent pattern in their emission of microwaves and X-rays, regardless of their different rates of consumption of surrounding galactic materials, such as clouds of gas, dust and plasma.
Rethinking the behavior of black holes
Led by scientists at Cardiff University, the team says this process is not predicted by our current understanding of how black holes power.
Currently considered intrinsically different depending on their appetites, active black holes are characterized by the layout of their core and the way they attract galactic matter.
However, the team found that these black holes may have more similarities than previously thought. Their discoveries, Posted in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: lettersit could offer new insights into how galaxies evolve.
Surprising observations and new insights
Lead author Dr Ilaria Ruffa, a research associate at Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “The microwave and X-ray glow we detect in the regions around these black holes appears to be directly connected to their mass and come from streams of plasma that fall into them in a disorderly way. This is the case both of systems that have enormous appetites, eating almost an entire star like our Sun per year, and of those with smaller appetites, that eat the same amount of material in 10 million years. This was very surprising because we previously thought that such flows should only occur in systems that eat at a low rate, while in those with a huge appetite the black hole should be fed by a more ordered and constant flow of matter (usually called an “accretion disk”).
The team made the discovery by studying the link between cold gas around active black holes and how they are fed into the WISDOM sample of 35 nearby galaxies captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescopes in Chile.
Dr Ruffa added: “Our study suggests that the microwave light we detect could actually come from these plasma streams in all types of active black holes, thus changing our view of how these systems consume matter and become the monsters cosmic things we see today. »
Implications for estimating black hole masses
The correlations observed by the team also provide a new method for estimating the mass of black holes, which astronomers say is key to understanding their impact on the evolution of galaxies in the Universe.
Co-author Dr Timothy Davis, Reader at Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, added: “Galaxies care a lot about the black holes that exist in their nuclei. And they probably shouldn’t, because while we always think of black holes as supermassive beasts that consume everything around them, they’re actually very small and light in the context of an entire galaxy. «Yet they have a mysterious non-gravitational influence on matter tens of thousands of light-years away. This is a question that has intrigued us as astronomers for many years.
“Measuring the masses of black holes and comparing them to the properties of their host galaxies is the best way to begin to understand why this mystery persists. Our new method opens a new window on this problem and, with the next generation of instruments, will allow us to explore it deeply into cosmic time.
Made up of researchers from Cardiff Hub for Astrophysical Research and Technology (CHART) and international partners from across Europe, Canada and Japan, the team plans to further test their findings as part of a project new project “Multi-wavelength observations of nuclear dark object emission regions” (WONDER) led by Dr. Ruffa.
2024-01-13 21:13:43
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