Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Unknown facts about black holes


Some recent theories have suggested that black holes my be even building their own host galaxy. Such scenario would be adequate to explain why the masses of black holes are larger in galaxies that contain more stars.

Some scientists believe that black holes came before starts and galaxies, and at some point they triggered the formation of stars and galaxies.

The scientists have come up with these two conclusions after conducting extensive observations of a peculiar nearby quasar HE0450-2958, which is the only one for which a host galaxy has not yet been detected. There was no trace of stars revealed around the black hole, and what they also noticed was that its companion galaxy is extremely rich in bright and very young stars. They have calculated that stars are forming at a rate equivalent to about 350 Suns per year, one hundred times more than rates for typical galaxies in the local Universe. The conclusion was pretty simple in the end as the scientists have identified black hole jets as a possible trigger of galaxy formation, which may also represent the long-sought missing link to understanding why the mass of black holes is larger in galaxies that contain more stars.

Here are some other fascinating facts about black holes.

Supermassive black holes are found in the cores of almost all large galaxies; our Milky Way galaxy is an exception that has inactive and starving black hole sitting at the centre, with only a fraction of them are believed to be active, as they eat up enormous amounts of material. These amazing actions produce a copious release of energy across the whole electromagnetic spectrum; and among most impressive are the quasars, where the active core is so overwhelmingly bright that it even outshines the luminosity of the host galaxy.

Most galaxies in the "local Universe" contain a supermassive black hole with a mass about 1/700th the mass of the stellar bulge. The origin of this black hole mass versus stellar mass relation is one of the most debated subjects in modern astrophysics, and question of many controversial theories.

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