|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Some relationships are written in the stars. That’s definitely the case for supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, according to a new study from Yale University.
The “special relationship” between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their hosts—something astronomers and physicists have observed for quite a while—can now be understood as a bond that begins early in a galaxy’s formation and has a say in how both the galaxy and the SMBH at its center grow over time, the researchers note.
A black hole is a point in space where matter has been compacted so tightly that it creates intense gravity. This gravity is strong enough that even light can’t escape its pull. Black holes can be as small as a single atom or as large as billions of miles in diameter. The biggest are called “supermassive” black holes and have masses equal to that of millions—or even billions—of suns.
SMBHs are often found at the center of large galaxies, including our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Although SMBHs were theoretically expected to exist, the first observational hints were detected in the 1960s; earlier this year, the Event Horizon Telescope released the first silhouette of a black hole in the galaxy Messier 87. Astrophysicists continue to theorize about the origins of black holes, how they grow and glow, and how they interact with host galaxies in different astronomical environments.
[…]
See Also:
(1) Milky Way galaxy on ‘collision course’ with nearby ‘monster’ galaxy
(2) Black Holes As We Know Them May Not Exist
(3) If Planet 9 Is Actually a Black Hole, It Completely Changes How We Understand Our Universe
(4) Nibiru: The Nonexistent Planet
(5) Warp Drive Is Theoretically Possible
(6) How Fast Is ‘Warp Speed’ Really?
(7) Elon Musk unveils new Mars rocket prototype, expects missions in months
(8) Astronomers expect to discover many more interstellar objects
(9) Astronomers observe how two suns collect matter in a binary system
(10) Scientists start mapping the hidden web that scaffolds the universe
