(Press-News.org) The surprising discovery of a supermassive black hole in a small nearby galaxy has given astronomers a tantalizing look at how black holes and galaxies may have grown in the early history of the Universe. Finding a black hole a million times more massive than the Sun in a star-forming dwarf galaxy is a strong indication that supermassive black holes formed before the buildup of galaxies, the astronomers said.
The galaxy, called Henize 2-10, 30 million light-years from Earth, has been studied for years, and is forming stars very rapidly. Irregularly shaped and about 3,000 light-years across (compared to 100,000 for our own Milky Way), it resembles what scientists think were some of the first galaxies to form in the early Universe.
"This galaxy gives us important clues about a very early phase of galaxy evolution that has not been observed before," said Amy Reines, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia.
Supermassive black holes lie at the cores of all "full-sized" galaxies. In the nearby Universe, there is a direct relationship -- a constant ratio -- between the masses of the black holes and that of the central "bulges" of the galaxies, leading them to conclude that the black holes and bulges affected each others' growth.
Two years ago, an international team of astronomers found that black holes in young galaxies in the early Universe were more massive than this ratio would indicate. This, they said, was strong evidence that black holes developed before their surrounding galaxies.
"Now, we have found a dwarf galaxy with no bulge at all, yet it has a supermassive black hole. This greatly strengthens the case for the black holes developing first, before the galaxy's bulge is formed," Reines said.
Reines, along with Gregory Sivakoff and Kelsey Johnson of the University of Virginia and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and Crystal Brogan of the NRAO, observed Henize 2-10 with the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope and with the Hubble Space Telescope. They found a region near the center of the galaxy that strongly emits radio waves with characteristics of those emitted by super-fast "jets" of material spewed outward from areas close to a black hole.
They then searched images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory that showed this same, radio-bright region to be strongly emitting energetic X-rays. This combination, they said, indicates an active, black-hole-powered, galactic nucleus.
"Not many dwarf galaxies are known to have massive black holes," Sivakoff said.
While central black holes of roughly the same mass as the one in Henize 2-10 have been found in other galaxies, those galaxies all have much more regular shapes. Henize 2-10 differs not only in its irregular shape and small size but also in its furious star formation, concentrated in numerous, very dense "super star clusters."
"This galaxy probably resembles those in the very young Universe, when galaxies were just starting to form and were colliding frequently. All its properties, including the supermassive black hole, are giving us important new clues about how these black holes and galaxies formed at that time," Johnson said.
INFORMATION:
The astronomers reported their findings in the January 9 online edition of Nature, and at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Seattle, WA.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
END
The humble ginger root could be the key to conserving the UK's largest and most spectacular terrestrial beetle – the stag beetle. Ecologists from Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of York have developed a series of new methods to monitor stag beetle numbers – including ginger lures to trap adult beetles and tiny microphones to detect sounds made by the larvae in their underground nests. Conservation efforts have been hampered until now because ecologists lacked a reliable way of monitoring stag beetle numbers.
The new research, published in the Royal ...
New research indicates the impact of rising CO2 levels in the Earth's atmosphere will cause unstoppable effects to the climate for at least the next 1000 years, causing researchers to estimate a collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet by the year 3000, and an eventual rise in the global sea level of at least four metres.
The study, to be published in the Jan. 9 Advanced Online Publication of the journal Nature Geoscience, is the first full climate model simulation to make predictions out to 1000 years from now. It is based on best-case, 'zero-emissions' scenarios constructed ...
An innovative device which cancels out the noise of the dental drill could spell the end of people's anxiety about trips to the dentist, according to experts at King's College London, Brunel University and London South Bank University, who pioneered the invention.
It is widely known that the sound of the dental drill is the prime cause of anxiety about dental treatment, and some patients avoid trips to the dentist because of it. This new device could help address people's fears and encourage them to seek the oral healthcare treatment they need.
The prototype device ...
Jülich, 9 January 2011 – Although the storage of films and music on a DVD is part of our digital world, the physical basis of the storage mechanism is not understood in detail. In the current issue of the leading journal Nature Materials, researchers from Jülich, Finland, and Japan provide insight into the read and write processes in a DVD. This knowledge should enable improved storage materials to be developed. (DOI: 10.1038/NMAT2931)
Information is stored in a DVD in the form of microscopic bits (each less than 100 nanometres in size) in a thin layer of a polycrystalline ...
DURHAM, N.C. – The recipe for making one species into two requires time and some kind of separation, like being on different islands or something else that discourages gene flow between the two budding species.
In the case of common Texas wildflowers that share meadows and roadside ditches, color-coding apparently does the trick.
Duke University graduate student Robin Hopkins has found the first evidence of a specific genetic change that helps two closely related wildflowers avoid creating costly hybrids. It results in one of the normally light blue flowers being tagged ...
New research from UC Davis Cancer Center has found that whether a person gets screened for colon cancer often depends on where they live in addition to their race or ethnicity.
It has long been known that racial minorities have lower colorectal screening rates than whites, presumably because of differences in socioeconomic status, access to care and cultural issues. What hasn't been known, until now, is whether these differences also vary across geographic regions.
In a paper published online today in the journal Cancer, medical oncologist Thomas Semrad and colleagues ...
Individuals from certain areas of the United States are more likely to get screened for colorectal cancer than those from other areas, particularly when comparing non-whites living in different parts of the country. That is the conclusion of a new study published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Additional research is needed to better understand how colorectal cancer screening disparities develop in some regions and not in others.
Racial and ethnic disparities in colorectal screening exist among the Medicare population, but ...
KINGSTON, R.I. – January 10, 2011 -- While most blood tests require shipping a vial of blood to a laboratory for analysis and waiting several days for the results, a new device invented by a team of engineers and students at the University of Rhode Island uses just a pinprick of blood in a portable device that provides results in less than 30 minutes.
"This development is a big step in point-of-care diagnostics, where testing can be performed in a clinic, in a doctor's office, or right at home," said Mohammad Faghri, URI professor of mechanical engineering and the lead ...
A manufacturer based in Italy, Artemide light has never been solely a function of seeing, or an opportunity for formal experimentation with lamps as objects. For more than forty years, Artemide has aimed to propose light as a companion to people, as a source of physical pleasure and mental comfort. Artemide has done so, with different work groups, searching through the whole design process, starting with a declaration of values - The human light.
Beyond the definition, the human light is intelligent light. A light that knows it has to relate to people, accompanying them ...
Dr. Tricia Pingel, NMD will be speaking at Whole Foods in Scottsdale on Wednesday, January 12, 2010 at 6:00 pm.
She will explain how the thyroid links to heart health, digestive issues, weight gain, fatigue and depression in the event: "Don't settle for false solutions. Learn how to support this incredible gland", she states. During this speaking event, Dr. Pingel will review natural ways to restore healthy thyroid function.
Dr. Tricia Pingel is a naturopathic medical doctor who is an expert in thyroid disorders and bio-identical hormone therapy. She also treats ...
