3/26/2023 0 Comments Supermassive black hole lyrics![]() ![]() The technique helped the team determine that nine of the 10 supermassive black holes were at rest - but one stood out and seemed to be in motion. ![]() When studied with a combined network of radio antennas using a technique known as very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), masers can help measure a black hole’s velocity very precisely, Pesce says. They specifically studied black holes that contained water within their accretion disks - the spiral structures that spin inward towards the black hole.Īs the water orbits around the black hole, it produces a laser-like beam of radio light known as a maser. If they don’t, that implies the black hole has been disturbed.”įor their search, the team initially surveyed 10 distant galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their cores. “We expect them to have the same velocity. “We asked: Are the velocities of the black holes the same as the velocities of the galaxies they reside in?” he said. Pesce and his collaborators have been working to observe this rare occurrence for the last five years by comparing the velocities of supermassive black holes and galaxies. That’s going to require a pretty mighty kick.” Consider how much more difficult it is to kick a bowling ball into motion than it is to kick a soccer ball - realizing that in this case, the ‘bowling ball’ is several million times the mass of our Sun. “They’re just so heavy that it’s tough to get them going. “We don’t expect the majority of supermassive black holes to be moving they’re usually content to just sit around,” said Dominic Pesce, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics who led the study. Their results are published today in the Astrophysical Journal. ![]() Now, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have identified the clearest case to date of a supermassive black hole in motion. Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space - but catching them in the act has proven difficult. ![]()
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