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Astronomers have discovered a thin disc of spiral material in a supermassive black hole in a very weak galaxy – an unexpected discovery that could provide additional clues to the dynamic processes surrounding black holes.
Using the The Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have observed the black hole in the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 3147, located approximately 130 million light-years away from the constellation Draco. Black holes in low-light galaxies such as NGC 3147 typically do not contain enough material captured by the gravity of the galaxy to be fed, and are therefore considered "hungry," according to Hubble scientists. said in a statement.
The researchers were surprised to find a thin disc surrounding the black hole in the center of this galaxy because it looked like the type of accretion disk that typically surrounds the black holes that are found in extremely active galaxies (and much brighter)
Related: Images: Black Holes of the Universe
This image of the Hubble Space Telescope of the spiral galaxy NGC 3147 (left) is shown alongside the artwork by a supermassive black hole artist residing at the heart of the galaxy.
(Image credit: Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, S. Bianchi (University of Rome), A. Laor (Technion-Israel Institute of Technology) and Mr. Chiaberge (ESA, STScI and JHU), illustration: NASA, ESA and A Feild and L. Hustak (STScI))
"The type of disc we see is a small size quasar [a luminous galactic nucleus] Stefano Bianchi, professor of astrophysics at Roma Tre University in Italy and lead author of the study, said in a statement: "This is the same type of disc that we see in objects of 1,000 or even 100,000 times brighter. "
According to the study, the disk is so deeply embedded in the gravitational field of the black hole that the light emitted by the gas disk is altered by the intensity of the gravitational attraction. Hubble measured the disk spinning around the black hole to more than 10% of the speed of lightwhich makes it brighter as it moves towards the Earth and darkens when it moves away from our planet.
This process is known as a relativistic beam, in which relative effects change the luminosity of matter moving at speeds near the speed of light.
"It's an intriguing look at a record very close to a black hole," Bianchi said. "So close that the speeds and intensity of gravitational attraction affect the way we see the photons of light."
Artistic representation of the accretion disk around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the NGC 3147 spiral galaxy.
(Image credit: ESA / Hubble, Mr Kornmesser)
Scientists can use these observations to test the behavior of Albert Einstein. theories of relativity, which explain how gravity can distort the light, while the light coming from the center of this disc seems distorted. The resulting distorted images we see could provide unique insights into how light and matter behave so close to a black hole, according to the statement.
The original study team originally chose this galaxy to observe in order to validate known low-light-active galaxy models with hungry black holes in their center. But NGC 3147 has challenged these models, and scientists are now looking for other similar accretion disks surrounding these "malnourished" black holes in dimly lit galaxies.
"The predictions of current models for very weak active galaxies have clearly failed," Bianchi said.
The new document was published online on 11 July in the Monthly Notices from the Royal Astronomical Society.
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