Found evidence for the existence of a large population of supermassive black holes


Supermassive black hole hidden dust cloud (artist's view) / NASA / ESA i>

An international team of astronomers led by British scientists from the Royal Astronomical Society (Royal Astronomical Society, RAS) обнаружила high-energy x-rays , who claimed five of supermassive black holes. Previously, these objects have been hidden from the gaze of astronomers cosmic dust and gas.

The discovery was made using the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) - NASA space observatory in the program of small satellites. This space telescope hard X-ray range (7-80 keV), working on the principle of sliding reflection - reflection X-ray and gamma-rays at very small angles to the surface of the mirrors. It was launched in 2012.

Found a black hole is not accidental - the experiment was to test the theory, according to which the centers of galaxies are extremely active black holes, which are hidden from the usual observing dust clouds.

Prior to the commissioning of such NuSTAR telescope observations were possible. Now, the data collected from nine points of the sky, which could potentially present black holes, the team of researchers has discovered five of the desired objects. These black holes are more active than expected, scientists - they are quickly absorbed by the surrounding matter and emit powerful radiation fluxes.

"For a long time we were able to observe several black holes, not hidden by dust and gas, but we suspect that there are far more of them hidden from our observations, - says George Lansbyuri, extragalactic astronomy graduate student Center in Durham University. - Thanks NuSTAR we first discovered these hidden monsters, which we have not seen before ».

Extrapolation of the results suggests that in the universe there is a huge number of black holes - far more than previously thought, based on past observations.

Daniel Stern, a team representative of the telescope, said: « High-energy X-rays penetrate further than the low-energy, so we can penetrate deeper gaze into the clouds gas and dust. NuSTAR will help us in the first place, to estimate the size of black holes, and second, to find out why only some of them are hidden by these clouds. "

Source: geektimes.ru/post/253052/