Thursday, February 28, 2013

Supermassive black hole

Supermassive black hole




A spinning supermassive black hole lives in the heart of the nucleus of NGC 1365, a nearby galaxy some 56 million light-years away -- and now we know how fast it's spinning!

Astronomers have directly measured the spin of a black hole for the first time by detecting the mind-bending relativistic effects that warp space-time at the very edge of its event horizon -- the point of no return, beyond which even light cannot escape.




We also now know that supermassive black holes are inexorably linked to the galaxies that encircle them.

For example, the size of a supermassive black hole appears to have a direct correlation to the galaxy where it exists. Almost a decade ago, researchers calculated that the mass of a supermassive black hole appeared to have a constant relation to the mass of the central part of its galaxy, known as its bulge (think of the yolk in a fried egg). This 1 to 700 relationship supports the notion that the evolution and structure of a galaxy is closely tied to the scale of its black hole.

Other studies found another strong correlation. This one was between the mass of a supermassive black hole and the orbital speed of stars in the outer regions of their galaxy where the direct gravitational influence of the supermassive black hole should be weak: the larger the black hole, the faster the outer stars travel.

Thus it's now believed that black holes are not only common throughout the Cosmos but they play a fundamental role in the formation and evolution of the Universe we inhabit today.

In fact, we would not be here without them. 


3 comments:

  1. So is this black hole be the cause of Earth's destruction? If so, when?

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  2. Excelent blog! I have the blog http://area51humanoids.blogspot.com/ of which I post of Area 51, my Area 51 Extraterrestrial arts etc. I list all my Arts as 'Public Domaine' mostyl all Fiction Art, and I share freely if anyone wishes to download and use as they wish. Again, your woek is GREAT!

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