News tagged with galactic nuclei

Three-telescope interferometry allows astrophysicists to observe how black holes are fueled

(Phys.org) -- By combining the light of three powerful infrared telescopes, an international research team has observed the active accretion phase of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy tens ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 16, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

A new paradigm for active galactic nuclei

(Phys.org) -- Seyfert galaxies are similar to normal galaxies like our own Milky Way except in one critical respect: their nuclei are fantastically bright, in extreme instances as luminous as 100 billion suns. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Where do the highest-energy cosmic rays come from? Not from gamma-ray bursts, says IceCube study

The IceCube neutrino telescope encompasses a cubic kilometer of clear Antarctic ice under the South Pole, a volume seeded with an array of 5,160 sensitive digital optical modules (DOMs) that precisely track ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 18, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (23) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

The origins of a torus in a galactic nucleus

(PhysOrg.com) -- Quasars are among the most energetic objects in the universe, with some of them as luminous as ten thousand Milky Way galaxies. Quasars are thought to have massive black holes at their cores, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 13, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

German scientists ready for the hunt on dark energy

The German and Russian partners of the new eROSITA X-ray space observatory have now agreed on how to split the data from the first four years of an all sky survey. This decision was announced today at the ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 20, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 3

Galaxy mergers not the trigger for most black hole feeding frenzies

(PhysOrg.com) -- A survey of distant galaxies using the Hubble Space Telescope has put another nail in the coffin of the theory that galaxy mergers are the main trigger for turning quiescent supermassive black ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 14, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 51 | with audio podcast

Suspects in the quenching of star formation exonerated

Supermassive black holes millions to billions times the mass of our Sun lie at the heart of most, maybe all large galaxies. Some of these power brilliantly luminous, rapidly growing objects called active galactic nuclei that ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 11, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

AGNs as a new standard candle?

Nope. A standard candle isn’t the same red, green, blue, yellow and omni-present pink wax sticks that decorate your every day birthday cake. Until now a standard candle meant a Cepheid variable star – ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 27, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2

INTEGRAL observations suggest unified model for Active Galactic Nuclei requires a rethink

Scrutinizing a large sample of Active Galactic Nuclei with INTEGRAL, astronomers have found that, unexpectedly, sources affected by stronger absorption at lower energies show an excess emission in the hard ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 03, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

What activates a supermassive black hole?

A new study combining data from ESO's Very Large Telescope and ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory has turned up a surprise. Most of the huge black holes in the centres of galaxies in the past 11 billion ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jul 13, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (13) | comments 108 | with audio podcast

Astrophysicists use X-ray fingerprints to study eating habits of giant black holes

By studying the X-rays emitted when superheated gases plunge into distant and massive black holes, astrophysicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have provided an important test of a long-standing ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 06, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

Radio telescopes capture best-ever snapshot of black hole jets (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team, including NASA-funded researchers, using radio telescopes located throughout the Southern Hemisphere has produced the most detailed image of particle jets erupting from ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 21, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (28) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

The murmur of a monster

The Andromeda galaxy is the nearest large galaxy to our Milky Way. Like the Milky Way, it has a spiral-arm structure with a massive black hole at its nucleus. Unlike the Milky Way, however, its black hole ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 28, 2011 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (9) | comments 9

Identity parade clears cosmic collisions of the suspicion of promoting black hole growth

(PhysOrg.com) -- What happens when galaxies crash together? For years, these cosmic collisions have been blamed for triggering violent outbursts at the hearts of galaxies. Now, a remarkable piece of detective ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 05, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

How often do giant black holes become hyperactive?

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory tells scientists how often the biggest black holes have been active over the last few billion years. This discovery clarifies how supermassive ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 20, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 19 | with audio podcast