Black holes are not just standing still all the time

Many people imagine black holes as certain huge areas that just sit in space not doing nothing but this really isn't the case. In fact, according to the latest research coming from the scientists at Brigham Young University black holes are in fact very active, not only do they spin but they also move laterally across their host galaxy. These movements are believed to power quasars.

Quasars are among the brightest persistent lights in the universe and this was the first study to suggest the connection between black holes and quasar's light. Quasars usually inhabit the very centers of active young galaxies and can emit up to a thousand times the energy output of the Milky Way.

According to the professor David Neilsen, lead author of the study, "The black hole is like a generator spinning around in these magnetic fields and the way the field lines get twisted around and pulled by the spinning black hole creates electromagnetic tension that gets turned into radiation and energy that goes out".

If this latest theory is true then the biggest and brightest quasars have origin from black holes that both spin fast and traverse their host galaxy at high speeds.

The scientists also believe that these two movements do not compete with each other, in fact they do the opposite as they combine each other to give the overall energy that seems to be streaming away from the black hole.

The more detailed info about this study could be found in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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How close is the nearest black hole to Earth?

Until recently it was impossible to give an exact answer on bow close is the nearest black hole to Earth but an international team of astronomers has for the first time accurately measured the distance from Earth to a black hole, and this distance is 7800 light years, which is much closer that many scientists assumed it is.

How did they measure this distance? The breakthrough discovery was in this case the result of measuring the radio emissions from the black hole and its associated dying star. An exact distance from black hole is important from two different reasons. First of all astronomers can now gain a better picture of how black holes evolve, and what is even more important an exact distance is important for measurements of the black hole´s spin.

This nearest black hole was the result of supernova explosion, and it moves through space at a rate of about 40 km per second.

Scientists hope that with the help of this new measuring method they'll be able "to answer the question as to whether there is a difference between black holes that evolve directly from the collapse of a star without a supernova and black holes that evolve via a supernova and a temporary intermediate star, a proto-neutron star. We expect that the black holes in the last group can get a kick. Black holes formed in this way could then move through space faster", as Peter Jonker from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research said in his interview.

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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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