Black Hole (Photo : Reuters)
Supermassive black holes are known to suck everything that gets close to it, including light. Researchers located one in a galaxy not far, far away.
Scientists looked at the IRA F11119+3257 galaxy and found a supermassive black hole that is increasingly growing at its center. This means that the black hole is actively sucking huge amounts of gas, which results in friction that generates electromagnetic radiation such as visible light and X-rays.
The term active galactic nuclei (AGN) is given to active black holes. The discovered supermassive black hole generates so much radiation that it also produces strong winds that can push material away from the galactic center and into the edges of the galaxy, according to Science World Report.
"This is the first galaxy in which we can see both the wind from the active galactic nucleus and the large-scale outflow of molecular gas at the same time," said lead author Francesco Tombesi.
At first, the researchers thought the supermassive black hole was a forming star due to the visible light.
Professor Sylvain Veilleux from UMD said that two galaxies collided and the wreckage was enough to feed the supermassive black hole, ending up with one affected galaxy.
The researchers are aiming to study other galaxies and look for other AGNs, but are limited to what the current satellites can do. One advantage from the new study, which was published in the Nature journal, is that they now know what they should be searching for, according to Phys.org.
Within 2016, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA will be launching the ASTRO-H satellite, an upgraded version of the current Suzaku. ASTRO-H will make it possible for the scientists to study more galaxies and with more accuracy.
