Astronomers know the universe became reionized because when they look out in space and back in time at the light of very distant quasars — incredibly bright objects thought to be powered
by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies — they don't see the dimming of their light that would occur through a fog of neutral hydrogen gas.
The observatory's findings include new insights into many high - energy processes, from rapidly rotating neutron stars, also known as pulsars, within our own galaxy, to jets powered
by supermassive black holes in far - away young galaxies.
The gas outflow
driven by a supermassive black hole at the galactic center recently has become the focus of attention as it possibly is playing a key role in the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes.
Two teams of astronomers led by researchers at the University of Cambridge have looked back nearly 13 billion years, when the Universe was less than 10 percent its present age, to determine how quasars — extremely luminous objects powered
by supermassive black holes with the mass of a billion suns — regulate the formation of stars and the build - up of the most massive galaxies.
However, new work by astronomers at the University of Sheffield has discovered an incident of a star being
destroyed by a supermassive black hole in a much smaller sample size — a group of just 15 galaxies.
Latest findings using the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii increase scientific understanding of how powerful winds
generated by supermassive black holes impact and regulate the growth of 3C 298 Quasar Host Galaxy.
«With ALMA we can see that there's a direct link between these radio bubbles
inflated by the supermassive black hole and the future fuel for galaxy growth,» said Helen Russell, an astronomer with the University of Cambridge, UK, and lead author on a paper appearing in the Astrophysical Journal.
Through these efforts, astronomers are attempting to understand recently discovered phenomena such as the first detections of gravitational waves from neutron star collisions and the accompanying electromagnetic fireworks as well as regular stars being
engulfed by supermassive black holes.
Detailed comparison of new observations and supercomputer simulations has only now allowed researchers to understand how this can happen: the gas is first heated to temperatures of tens of millions of degrees by the energy
released by the supermassive black hole powering the quasar.
Radio astronomers have used a radio telescope network the size of the Earth to zoom in on a unique phenomenon in a distant galaxy: a jet activated by a star being
consumed by a supermassive black hole.
An AGN is powered
by a supermassive black hole actively feeding on gas in the center of a galaxy, and it is usually an extremely bright source of light (quasars being the most luminous AGNs in visible light).
While the jets from galaxy cores are thought to be powered
by supermassive black holes millions of times more massive than the Sun, the closer «microquasars» are powered by much smaller black holes or by neutron stars only a few times more massive than the sun.
Maunakea, Hawaii — Stars forming in galaxies appear to be
influenced by the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, but the mechanism of how that happens has not been clear to astronomers until now.
Astronomers have been able to peer back to the young Universe to determine how quasars — powered
by supermassive black holes with the mass of a billion suns — form and shape the evolution of galaxies.
«Understanding why and how galaxies are
affected by their supermassive black holes is an outstanding puzzle in their formation,» co-author Shelley Wright, an astrophysicist at the University of California, San Diego, said in a press release.
UT1 is determined from measurements of the rotation of the Earth by various means including radio telescope observations of quasars (distant galaxies
powered by supermassive black holes).
Until now, scientists have largely believed that such hypervelocity stars originate when binary stars get torn apart
by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which consumes one star and flings the other away at incredible speeds.
This is often the case in the search for «high - redshift» quasars, extremely distant and luminous objects powered
by supermassive black holes.
He notes that the model was originally developed for active galactic nuclei — outbursts powered
by supermassive black holes — so there is no reason to think it must also apply to gamma - ray bursts.
They could have emerged from gamma - ray bursts, mysterious and short - lived cataclysms that briefly rank as the brightest objects in the universe; shock waves from exploding stars; or so - called blazars, jets of energy powered
by supermassive black holes.
Quasars are considered «active» galaxies because the bright objects are powered
by supermassive black holes that are devouring their surroundings.
These brilliant objects are believed to be powered
by supermassive black holes, which must have begun forming very early in the life of the universe.
The emission instead originates from an active galactic nucleus that is powered
by a supermassive black hole.
The winds powered
by these supermassive black holes could come and go quickly.
To probe the cloud, the team used an even more distant quasar — a hugely bright light source powered
by a supermassive black hole — as a backlight.
Scientists with the H0LiCOW collaboration have now weighed in, using quasars, ultrabright light sources stirred up
by supermassive black holes.
Nobody is sure, but attention will now shift to active galactic nuclei powered
by supermassive black holes.
Attention will now shift to active galactic nuclei (AGN), which are powered
by supermassive black holes.
We know this because we see evidence for them in distant quasars - extremely bright light emissions given out when gas is drawn in
by a supermassive black hole's enormous gravity.
When jets spat out
by a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy collide with dark matter, they could produce gamma rays detectable from Earth — possible evidence of the elusive dark stuff.
The brightest type of active galactic nucleus, believed to be powered
by a supermassive black hole.