- Joined
- Sep 1, 2010
- Messages
- 7,023 (1.35/day)
Three merging galaxies 1.8 billion ly away form a black hole 3 billion times the mass of the Sun
Black holes grow by drawing in material including other black holes that venture too close, and in this case the black holes from the three galaxies have merged.
Dr Lisa Harvey-Smith from CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science and her team knew of a strong source of radiowaves, known as an astrophysical maser, in the group and pointed the array of antennas toward it. Knowing the speed of the gas they were able to directly measure the mass of the black hole that was causing the gas to swirl.
Source
- Monster black hole is 750 times bigger than the black hole at the center of the Milky Way
- Cosmic gas in merging galaxy is moving at ~ 600 km/s [~500 times the speed of a rifle cartridge]
Black holes grow by drawing in material including other black holes that venture too close, and in this case the black holes from the three galaxies have merged.
Dr Lisa Harvey-Smith from CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science and her team knew of a strong source of radiowaves, known as an astrophysical maser, in the group and pointed the array of antennas toward it. Knowing the speed of the gas they were able to directly measure the mass of the black hole that was causing the gas to swirl.
Source