Astronomers Discover Hidden Trove of Massive Black Holes, Can Help Understand the Milky Way’s Origin

[Pelican Press 0]

Astronomers Discover Hidden Trove of Massive ****** Holes, Can Help Understand the Milky Way’s Origin

****** holes are thought to reside at the centre of most galaxies, including our Milky Way, holding important clues to the functioning of these giants. A group of researchers has now found a previously overlooked trove of massive ****** holes in dwarf galaxies. ****** holes are usually detected when they actively grow by consuming gas around them, which makes them glow intensely. These ****** holes, the researchers believe, can offer insights into the journey of the supermassive ****** ***** that sits at the centre of the Milky Way.

The research, conducted by astronomers of the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill Department of Physics & Astronomy, US, is expected to shed light on the origin of our galaxy’s supermassive ****** *****.

As a giant spiral galaxy, the Milky Way is believed to be formed by mergers of several smaller dwarf galaxies. But whether all dwarf galaxies contain a massive ****** ***** is still unknown. This has led to a gap in our understanding of how ****** holes and galaxies grow together.

The research,

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in the Astrophysical Journal this week, helps fill this gap. It says that massive ****** holes are many times more common in dwarf galaxies than previously thought. They were, however, difficult to detect because the radiation from massive ****** holes in dwarf galaxies competes with the light of abundant young stars.

“This result really blew my mind because these ****** holes were previously hiding in plain sight,” Mugdha Polimera, lead author of the study and a UNC-Chapel Hill PhD student,

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in a statement.

Comparing ****** holes to fireflies, UNC-Chapel Hill Professor Sheila Kannappan, who is also the co-author of the study, said that we only see ****** holes when they’re lighting up, just like fireflies, and the lit-up ones offer us an indication to how many we can’t see.

The researchers reached their conclusion after conducting an exhaustive search for alternative explanations for these to be not ****** holes but just young stars.

Kannappan added that the ****** holes discovered by the researchers were the fundamental components of supermassive ****** holes like the one in the Milky Way.

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