(ORDO NEWS) — A study by the University of Southampton has shown how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) feed on gas clouds that travel hundreds of thousands of light-years from one galaxy to another.
An international team of scientists has demonstrated that there is a crucial link between the interactions between neighboring galaxies and the vast amount of gas needed to fuel these gigantic, super-dense cosmic phenomena.
Some black holes are millions of times more massive than our Sun and radiate massive amounts of energy. How exactly these supermassive black holes form and get enough fuel to feed them is still a mystery.
“Supermassive black holes fuel their activity, in part, by gradually accumulating gas from the environment around them.
Supermassive black holes can make the centers of galaxies shine very brightly as they trap gas, and this process is thought to have a big impact on how galaxies look today.
How SMBHs get enough fuel to keep themselves active and growing is still a mystery to astronomers, but the work we’ve done is a step towards understanding this.”
The scientists used data from the 4-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales to study the orbits of gas and stars in a sample of more than 3,000 galaxies.
The researchers have identified those galaxies in which there is a so-called “shifted” gas. This gas rotates in a direction different from that of the stars in the galaxy.
It signals the past interaction of galaxies. The researchers then found that gas-shifted galaxies have a higher proportion of active supermassive black holes.
The results showed a clear connection between the displaced gas and the activity of supermassive black holes.
Scientists hypothesize that the gas travels where two galaxies meet, travels vast distances in space, and then succumbs to the massive gravitational forces of the supermassive black hole – being pulled in and consumed.
Astronomers have long suspected that a merger with another galaxy could provide this source of gas, but there has been little direct evidence for this.
“The work we have done shows that the presence of gas that is displaced from stars is associated with an increase in the proportion of active supermassive black holes.
Because the shifted gas is a clear sign of past interactions between two galaxies, our work shows that galaxy interactions fuel active supermassive black holes,” Dr. Raimundo explained.
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