NOAO: Blowing the Cover of a Hidden Black Hole

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NOAO: Blowing the Cover of a Hidden Black Hole

Post by bystander » Mon Jun 05, 2017 6:29 pm

Blowing the Cover of a Hidden Black Hole
National Optical Astronomy Observatory | 2017 Jun 05
[img3="Color image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7582 which hosts a hidden black hole. MUSE observations (inset) reveal emission from a hot gaseous wind (in green) that is ionized and launched by the black hole. Image Credits: Stefan Binnewies and Josef Pöpsel of Capella Observatory (background image); Stephanie Juneau of NOAO and CEA-Saclay (inset)."]https://www.noao.edu/news/2017/img/mont ... USE_PR.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
A close look at the center of a nearby galaxy has revealed a surprising connection between the galaxy and the supermassive black hole at its center. The galaxy is an extreme example of an “obscured AGN”, an accreting supermassive black hole that is deeply enshrouded in gas and dust.

Observations made by an international team of astronomers show that the black hole launches a powerful wind, which is confined by a component of the galaxy, a rotating ring of gas and dust 2000 light years in diameter. The team, led by NOAO astronomer Stephanie Juneau, suspects that the ring also contributes to the extreme obscuration of the black hole. The results — which Juneau is presenting at this week’s meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas — lend new insights into the interaction between black holes and their host galaxies.

Supermassive black holes are believed to lurk at the centers of essentially all massive galaxies, growing in mass as they feed on gas and stars from their surroundings. Analyses of the cosmic X-ray background, which records the integrated feeding history of black holes, point to the existence of a mysterious population of “obscured AGN”, actively feeding black holes that are deeply enshrouded in gas and dust.

Why are these black holes so obscured? Is the obscuration related to the evolution of the black hole itself or to the evolution of its host galaxy? Understanding the nature of the obscuring material is one way to find out. ...
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