SUPER MASSIVE BLACK HOLES

SUPER MASSIVE BLACK HOLES (death star galaxy)

Article from
-http://www.spacescan.org/entry/astronomers-observe-black-hole-gobbling-up-galaxy/
-http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/photos07-139.html

Black holes have baffled scientists for a long time. The dense mass of the dead star that has is dense enough to gobble huge planets and stars. Recently astronomers have discovered a powerful black hole blasting a galaxy.

Astronomers have earlier witnessed collision between galaxies but this is the first time they have seen collision of such large scale. In a recent discovery a large galaxy called the ‘death star galaxy‘ has a jet of high energy particles and magnetic fields emanating from the back hole at its centre that is gobbling a smaller galaxy standing close to it. Black holes are present at the centre of most galaxies. Some galaxies eject powerful jets from the vicinity of the black holes.


Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans et al.; Optical/UV: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/VLA/CfA/D.Evans et al., STFC/JBO/MERLIN

This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, the first time such an interaction has been found. In the image, data from several wavelengths have been combined. X-rays from Chandra (colored purple), optical and ultraviolet (UV) data from Hubble (red and orange), and radio emission from the Very Large Array (VLA) and MERLIN (blue) show how the jet from the main galaxy on the lower left is striking its companion galaxy to the upper right. The jet impacts the companion galaxy at its edge and is then disrupted and deflected, much like how a stream of water from a hose will splay out after hitting a wall at an angle.


A Black hole is a hypothetical region of space possessing a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape from it. Such regions are said to form when a star collapses, having used all its nuclear fuel. Smaller stars create supernova explosions when they die leaving neutron star; it is the more massive stars that are believed to create black holes.

Though the current discovery shows the black hole feeding on the smaller galaxy causing its death, the strangest fact of such cosmic event is that eventually after the destruction is complete the massive influx of energy and radiation into the smaller galaxy will create new stars and planet - a Sphinx-like rise from the ashes of death.

The problem of detecting black holes is that they are unable to emit or reflect any radiation.

Earth is safe from the havoc causing actions of black holes. If our solar system came in the line of fire of any jet emanating black hole then the ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere would be destroyed and life on the planet would face mass extinction.

How safe is our planet from the scourges of the black holes. Astronomers believe there are two such beasts near the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.