Black Holes are growing faster than previously believed
January 19th, 2013
Scientists from Swinburne
University have revealed that the growth of super massive black holes,
which are present at the centers of galaxies, does not occurs in the
same way as it was previously thought.
Previous Thoughts and New Discovery:
Previous Thoughts:
It was thought that black holes increased their mass in step with the growth of their host galaxy. Both black holes and budding stars competed for the available gas to feed for their growth but the ratio of ratio of black hole mass to galaxy mass was thought remain preserved. It was thought that the star clusters contained a constant 0.2% of the galaxy mass.
New discovery:
It has now been discovered that Black holes have been growing much faster than we previously thought. It has been found that in big galaxies each ten-fold increase of a galaxy’s stellar mass is associated with a much larger 100-fold growth in its black hole mass. However, the opposite behavior exists among the tightly packed clusters of stars that are observed at the centres of smaller galaxies and in disk galaxies like our Milky Way because smaller the galaxy, the greater the fraction of stars in these dense, compact clusters which makes them dominant over black holes. Scientists also claim to have solved long-elusive mystery of “Intermediate Mass” black holes with masses between that of a single star and one million stars. As per researchers, numerous galaxies already known to contain a black hole – albeit of a currently unknown mass – should contain these missing `intermediate mass’ black holes which may be big enough to be seen by new generation of extremely large telescopes. These black holes will also hold the potential to consume planets and stars venturing too close to them.
Previous Thoughts:
It was thought that black holes increased their mass in step with the growth of their host galaxy. Both black holes and budding stars competed for the available gas to feed for their growth but the ratio of ratio of black hole mass to galaxy mass was thought remain preserved. It was thought that the star clusters contained a constant 0.2% of the galaxy mass.
New discovery:
It has now been discovered that Black holes have been growing much faster than we previously thought. It has been found that in big galaxies each ten-fold increase of a galaxy’s stellar mass is associated with a much larger 100-fold growth in its black hole mass. However, the opposite behavior exists among the tightly packed clusters of stars that are observed at the centres of smaller galaxies and in disk galaxies like our Milky Way because smaller the galaxy, the greater the fraction of stars in these dense, compact clusters which makes them dominant over black holes. Scientists also claim to have solved long-elusive mystery of “Intermediate Mass” black holes with masses between that of a single star and one million stars. As per researchers, numerous galaxies already known to contain a black hole – albeit of a currently unknown mass – should contain these missing `intermediate mass’ black holes which may be big enough to be seen by new generation of extremely large telescopes. These black holes will also hold the potential to consume planets and stars venturing too close to them.
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