A trail found in the gas surrounding a distant galaxy could be the smoking gun pointing to a runaway supermassive black hole.
But those supermassive black holes all had one thing in common: they're active, which means they're surrounded by a cloud of material that's falling into their gaping mouths of doom. This process generates insane amounts of heat and light, which makes them much easier to spot.
The discovery was made in the course of other investigations. The researchers were using Hubble to study a much closer dwarf galaxy called RCP 28. It was in that image that they discovered something that might just be the trail of a runaway supermassive black hole. Looking more closely, they found that the streak was not uniform in color or brightness. It also shows signs of strong ionization, and shock regions. Some of the ionization could be explained by the presence of very young, hot, massive stars; that's consistent with astrophysical shocks, which tend to compress gas and cause clumps of it to collapse under gravity, forming baby stars.
In fact, the observed streak happens to be the very opposite of what astronomers would expect of a jet of gas; strongest at the farthest point from the galaxy, where there is less material, and narrower at greater distance, rather than spreading out like a jet.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NJ councilwoman shooting 911 calls reveal eyewitness account of male suspect wearing black, fleeing on footAuthorities in Middlesex provided Fox News Digital with nine 911 recordings Monday – two of which mentioned a male gunman wearing all black running from the scene on foot.
Read more »
Louisiana lawsuit alleges police killed fleeing Black man - New York Amsterdam NewsFamily members of AlonzoBagley, a Black man who was killed as he tried to flee police responding to a disturbance call, have filed a $10 million lawsuit against the officer who shot him.
Read more »
Louisiana lawsuit alleges police killed fleeing Black manFamily members of Alonzo Bagley, a Black man who was killed as he tried to flee police responding to a disturbance call, have filed a $10 million lawsuit against the officer who shot him. The federal lawsuit was filed last week in Shreveport by his wife, mother and stepdaughter of Bagley, 43. State police are investigating and said last week that no weapon was found on or near Bagley.
Read more »
Houston Black-owned restaurants and businesses to supportFebruary is Black History Month and what better way to celebrate than with exploring Houston's Black history at museums and landmarks, trying new food and supporting Black owned businesses.
Read more »
Opinion | The Black-on-Black violence that keeps the Blue Lives Matter crowd extra quietJarvis DeBerry: We give police an awesome amount of power and discretion, making it near impossible to hold them personally liable for violations while in uniform. There’s nothing about being Black that stops a person given such power from running amok.
Read more »
Evolution Festival to Feature Brandi Carlile, Black Keys, Black Crowes, Ben Harper, Ice Cube & MoreFirst-time event will take place in St. Louis in late August.
Read more »