Astronomers have long predicted the presence of
such black holes at the center of the galaxy, which they said could number in the thousands.
Not exact matches
The objects causing these low - frequency ripples —
such as orbiting supermassive
black holes at the
centers of distant
galaxies — would be different from the higher frequency ripples, emitted by collisions
of much smaller
black holes, that have so far been detected on Earth.
The current model
of active
galaxies such as M87 posits that each one harbors
at its
center a
black hole many millions or even billions
of times more massive than our own sun, all packed into a space about the size
of our solar system.
Previously, astronomers have used x-ray telescopes to observe strong winds very near the massive
black holes at galactic
centers (artist's concept, inset) and infrared wavelengths to detect the vast outflows
of cool gas (bluish haze in artist's concept, main image) from
such galaxies as a whole, but they've never done so in the same
galaxy.
Resembling spotlights
at a Hollywood movie premier,
such beams are probably generated as matter plunges into a supermassive
black hole at the
center of the
galaxy.
The nearly 100 percent polarization
of the radio bursts is unusual, and has only been seen in radio emissions from the extreme magnetic environments around massive
black holes,
such as those
at the
centers of galaxies.
This may help solve
such mysteries as how gas clouds are triggered to form new stars and when the massive
black hole at the
center of every mature
galaxy forms.
Using NASA's super-sensitive Chandra X-ray space telescope, a team
of astronomers led by Q. Daniel Wang
at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst has solved a long - standing mystery about why most super massive
black holes (SMBH)
at the
centers of galaxies have
such a low accretion rate — that is, they swallow very little
of the cosmic gases available and instead act as if they are on a severe diet.