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Scientists just got better at detecting ‘bright’ black holes: “It can effectively kill it”

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Astronomers have just found a new way of detecting active black holes in the Universe and measuring the amount of matter they consume.

The approach can be used to hunt for bright, supermassive black holes at the centers of millions of galaxies.

Active black holes are often located in the largest galaxies in the Universe, according to lead author Jessica Thorne, a PhD student at the University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

“The black holes we’re looking for are between a million and a billion times more massive than our Sun,” she says.

“As they suck in matter from around them, the matter gets super-heated because of friction and becomes very, very luminous.

“And when they’re active, these black holes can outshine the rest of the galaxy.”

Identifying bright black holes has been difficult in the past, with astronomers having to look for them particularly using complex procedures suited to different types of telescopes.

Instead, the new method relies on existing telescope observations for millions of galaxies.

“We can identify these active black holes and look at how much light they’re emitting, but also measure the properties of the galaxy it is in at the same time,” Thorne adds.

“By doing both at once, we can have a better idea of exactly how the black hole is impacting its host galaxy.”

The researchers created the new technique by modeling emission from galaxies and black holes at various wavelengths of light using an algorithm called ProSpect.

Next, they applied the strategy to nearly half a million galaxies from the DEVILS survey of the Anglo-Australian Telescope.

They also used it to analyze over 200,000 galaxies from the GAMA survey, which combines data from six of the world’s top ground and space telescopes.

ICRAR- Scientists usually fail to account for bright black holes in galaxies, according to UWA astronomer Dr Sabine Bellstedt.

“One of the reasons we’ve ignored them in the past is because it’s hard to find them all,” she says.

“We don’t really understand these bright black holes to incorporate them into our modelling with sufficient detail.”

The new technique, according to Dr. Bellstedt, is simpler, more consistent, and thorough.

“It suddenly means we can look for active black holes in so many more places than we were able to before,” she adds.

“It’s going to help us search more galaxies, and look further back in time to the distant Universe.”

Supermassive black holes are considered to have a significant impact on the evolution of galaxies.

“We think that an active black hole in a galaxy is able to decrease the amount of star formation really quickly and stop the galaxy from growing any further,” Thorne adds.

“It can effectively kill it.”

Scientists may be able to apply the method to a lot of galaxies at once thanks to new telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.

“It’s exciting to think about how many doors this has unlocked for the future,” Thorne concludes.

Source: 10.1093/mnras/stab3208

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