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Galaxy Survives Black Hole's Feast – “Goes Against All the Current Scientific Predictions” - SciTechDaily

Galaxy Survives Black Hole's Feast – “Goes Against All the Current Scientific Predictions” - SciTechDaily

Galaxy Survives Black Hole's Feast – “Goes Against All the Current Scientific Predictions” - SciTechDaily
Nov 30, 2020 2 mins, 50 secs

The extremely active black hole at the galaxy’s center is consuming material so fast that the material is glowing as it spins into the black hole’s center, forming a luminous quasar.

Quasars create intense energy that was thought to halt all star birth and drive a lethal blow to a galaxy’s growth.

But SOFIA found that the galaxy CQ4479 is surviving these monstrous forces, holding on to enough cold gas, shown around the edges in brown, to birth about 100 Sun-sized stars a year, shown in blue.

The hungriest of black holes are thought to gobble up so much surrounding material they put an end to the life of their host galaxy.

Now, researchers have found a galaxy that is surviving the black hole’s ravenous forces by continuing to birth new stars – about 100 Sun-sized stars a year.

“This shows us that the growth of active black holes doesn’t stop star birth instantaneously, which goes against all the current scientific predictions,” said Allison Kirkpatrick, assistant professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence Kansas and co-author on the study.

At its core is a special type of quasar that was recently discovered by Kirkpatrick called a “cold quasar.” In this kind of quasar, the active black hole is still feasting on material from its host galaxy, but the quasar’s intense energy has not ravaged all of the cold gas, so stars can keep forming and the galaxy lives on.

This is the first time researchers have a detailed look at a cold quasar, directly measuring the black hole’s growth, star birth rate, and how much cold gas remains to fuel the galaxy.

“If this tandem growth continues both the black hole and the stars surrounding it would triple in mass before the galaxy reaches the end of its life.”.

With the polarimeter, HAWC+ can map magnetic fields in star forming regions and in the environment around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

They form when an especially active black hole consumes huge amounts of material from its surrounding galaxy, creating strong gravitational forces.

As more and more material spins faster and faster toward the center of the black hole, the material heats up and glows brightly.

Current theories predict that this energy heats up or expels the cold gas needed to create stars, stopping star birth and driving a lethal blow to a galaxy’s growth.

But SOFIA reveals there is a relatively short period when the galaxy’s star birth can continue while the black hole’s feast goes on powering the quasar’s powerful forces.

“It’s the only telescope capable of studying star birth in this galaxy without being overwhelmed by the intensely luminous quasar.”.

The short window of joint black hole and star growth represents an early phase in the death of a galaxy, wherein the galaxy has not yet succumbed to the devastating effects of the quasar.

Continued research with SOFIA is needed to learn if many other galaxies go through a similar stage with joint black hole and star growth before ultimately reaching the end of life.

Earth just got 7 km/s (~16,000 mph) faster and about 2000 light-years closer to the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way…

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