According to one published article October 12 in the magazine Monthly notifications of letters of the Royal Astronomical SocietyRecently, a team of astronomers, with the help of other scientists, discovered a A single black hole in a galaxy about a billion light-years awayThe that launches a relative plane to another galaxy. The investigation was conducted by a team led by Ananda HutaResearcher UM-DAE Center of Excellence in Basic Sciences.
Join this world investigators From Indian Institute of Astrophysicsfrom the Sorbonne University laboratory for Study of Radiation and Matter in Astrophysics and the Atmosphere (LERMA)From Arecibo ObservatoryFrom Amity Institute of Applied SciencesFrom Thapar institute of engineering and technologyand cooperation [email protected] Citizen science.
different galaxies
Galaxies are usually divided into Three main categories based on size, shape and configuration. First, there ovalWhich represents About a third of the universe’s galaxieswhich are completely circular or elongated.
Then there spiral galaxies, which are distinguished by their characteristic spiral arms and appear as flat discs with large, yellow protrusions in their centres. Finally, there is irregular galaxieswhich is neither ellipsoidal nor spiral and was more common in the early universe.
When it comes to elliptical galaxies, astronomers note that The formation of new stars is very scattered It appears to have largely stopped billions of years ago.
Although the reason for this is still a mystery, recent research indicates that there are supermassive black holes You may be responsible. These ‘monstrous black holes’ are causing the centers of massive galaxies to form Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)And the The core is more active than all the stars on the disk combined.
In many cases, AGN’s It also has huge planes ejecting from its poles Accelerate gas and dust to relative velocities (close to the speed of light).
he thinks that The expulsion of this material towards other galaxies causes elliptical galaxies to exhaust cold gas and dustwhich would be fuel for star formation.
Another mystery that astronomers face is how this happens Active galactic nuclei powered jets join gas from galactic mergers, causing positive reactions. This temporarily leads to increased star formation, followed by negative feedback and a decline in star formation.
To address this latest puzzle, Huta and her colleagues They noticed an elliptical galaxy located about a billion light-years from Earth. However, when the Hota team looked at it again, through India’s Giant Wave Radio Telescope (GMRT), they noticed that RAD12 It appears to be spewing matter from only one electrode.
Unlike other jets that extrude material in pairs and in opposite directions, RAD12 appears to be shooting matter only towards its neighboring galaxyRAD12-B.
Stretches the entire structure 440 thousand light years It is much larger than the host galaxy itself. This is the first time an aircraft has hit a galaxy as large as RAD12-B.
“We are thrilled to have observed a rare system that helps us understand the feedback from radio jets from supermassive black holes to star-forming galaxies during mergers.” – Huta said in a recent press release from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
Observations with GMRT and data from several other telescopes strongly suggest that the radio jet in RAD12 is colliding with its companion galaxy. Thanks to the feedback from Huta and her team, Astronomers are now closer to understanding the effect of such interactions on elliptical galaxies.
Your results can lead to a New understanding of how to stop star formation in elliptical galaxiesSolve a long-standing mystery about the evolution of galaxies. It is also proof of The type of investigation possible At present through Collaboration between citizen scientists and astronomers.