Supermassive black holes, trillions of times the mass of our Sun, are often hidden from view by thick clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers are using infrared light to find these hidden giants, looking for glowing donuts of gas and dust called tori that surround them. A new survey using data from multiple NASA telescopes is helping to advance our understanding of these elusive objects.
A supermassive black hole surrounded by a torus of gas and dust is depicted in four different wavelengths of light in this artist’s concept. Visible light and low-energy X-rays are blocked by the torus; infrared is scattered and reemitted; and some high energy X-rays can penetrate the torus. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
SMBHs, like all black holes, emit no light themselves. Instead, the light comes from the torus of swirling gas and dust that forms an accretion ring around the SMBH. The gas and dust become superheated and emit electromagnetic radiation. So far, scientists have only imaged two SMBHs, both with the. Whether or not we can see the centre of a galaxy like this depends on our viewing. From a “side” view, the torus blocks it out, while from a “top” or “bottom” view, it doesn’t.
” It’s published in The Astrophysical Journal, and the lead author is Peter G. Boorman, an astrophysicist from the Cahill Center for Astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology. However, IRAS didn’t discriminate against infrared sources. It also spotted galaxies undergoing rapid star formation, which emit similar infrared light as AGN. In this new research, the authors used ground-based telescopes to differentiate between the two.
SUPERSIZE BLACK HOLES ASTRONOMY INFRARED LIGHT AGN TORUS DUST
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