Monday, December 5, 2011

Most Massive Black Holes Discovered

As technology and observing techniques improve, we can measure the movements of stars and gas in galaxies farther away with more precision. Using more advanced techniques and instruments, Karl Gebhardt and graduate student Jeremy Murphy of The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a pair of black holes with about 10 billion solar masses each in galaxies over 300 million light years away!

They had to combine data from several telescopes including the 8 meter Gemini Telescope in Hawaii, the 10 meter Keck Telescope in Hawaii and the Mitchell Spectrograph on the 2.7 meter telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas. By measuring how fast stars and gas are orbiting the black hole, you can calculate the mass of the black hole.

In spite of the amazingly large mass of the black holes, they are not large on the cosmic scale. The event horizons of these beasts (the point of no return where not even light can escape) is about 200 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun (commonly called an astronomical unit, or a.u.). And we don't need to worry about these guys...they are both over 300 million light years away (and we have a pretty good size black hole much closer to us at the center of our galaxy which we are happily orbiting right now and don't have to worry about it either!)

These black holes probably formed by the mergers of black holes in smaller galaxies and astronomers are very interested in figuring out the details of how these super massive black holes form. These black holes may be the same ones that powered quasars in the early universe but have run out of the supply of gas and dust that powered quasars billions of years ago.

Now when I first read this story it jogged a circuit in my brain that recalled a story from a couple of years ago that astronomers had found evidence that there is a limit to the size of the largest black holes. Sure enough, I quickly found that article again. Priyamvada Natarajan, an associate professor of astronomy and physics at Yale University and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, found an upper limit for the mass of black holes at (drum roll, please!) 10 billion solar masses!

Now I am sure Gebhardt and Murphy are already hard at work looking at more galaxies and trying to find even more massive black holes and they would love to break the 10 billion solar mass rule and make astronomers rethink their ideas on black hole formation and evolution!

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

6 comments:

jedwis said...

More good stuff, Hale. My IQ just jumped to 6. Can we use KK's telescope to find these black holes, or is just good for looking in windows?

hale-bopp said...

Well, you can't see the black holes, but the galaxies are fairly bright. The previous record holder in M87 is definitely a target you can see in the Galileoscope if you know where to look. One of these two new ones is in the Leo Triplet which you might be able to get under a VERY dark site with the Galileoscope (I have seen it with a slightly larger telescope but not tried with the Galileoscope). I am not sure about the third one in the Coma cluster, but it wouldn't surprise me if you could. The mass of the black hole tends to correspond to the mass of the galaxy so bigger black holes = bigger galaxies which are easier to see.

OrbsCorbs said...

Yo momma so fat she's bigger than 10 billion solar masses.

lizardmom said...

I will have to read this tomorrow morning, my contact is out already, and I'm super tired, I only got that there is massive gas out there, I'm holding my breath - phew!!!!! :)
Hopefully something will retain tomorrow, always cool to read your stuff Hale, I just need to be awake and able to see straight :)

drewzepmeister said...

A great song about black holes-Cygnus X-1.

[Prologue:]
In the constellation of Cygnus, there lurks a mysterious, invisible force: the black hole
of Cygnus X-1...

Six Stars of the Northern Cross
In mourning for their sister's loss
In a final flash of glory
Nevermore to grace the night...

[1]
Invisible to telescopic eye
Infinity, the star that would not die

All who dare to cross her course
Are swallowed by her fearsome force

Through the void
To be destroyed
Or is there something more?
Atomized...at the core?
Or through the Astral Door?
To soar...

[2]
I set a course just east of Lyra
And northwest of Pegasus
Flew into the light of Deneb
Sailed across the Milky Way
On my ship, the 'Rocinante'
Wheeling through the galaxies
Headed for the heart of Cygnus
Headlong into mystery

The x-ray is her siren song
My ship cannot resist her long
Nearer to my deadly goal
Until the black hole
Gains control...

[3]
Spinning, whirling
Still descending
Like a spiral sea
Unending...

Sound and fury
Drown my heart
Every nerve
Is torn apart...

Forgive me for me being a Rush nerd.

SER said...

Monday, December 5, 2011
Most Massive Black Holes Discovered

Boppster, I read the title and thought you where talking about Racine!