NASA | JPL-Caltech | GSFC | NuSTAR | 2015 Jan 08
A new high-energy X-ray image from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has pinpointed the true monster of a galactic mashup. The image shows two colliding galaxies, collectively called Arp 299, located 134 million light-years away. Each of the galaxies has a supermassive black hole at its heart.[attachment=0]pia18907-16.jpg[/attachment]Tale of Two Black Holes
NuSTAR has revealed that the black hole located at the right of the pair is actively gorging on gas, while its partner is either dormant or hidden under gas and dust.
The findings are helping researchers understand how the merging of galaxies can trigger black holes to start feeding, an important step in the evolution of galaxies. ...
A Focused, Hard X-ray Look at Arp 299 with NuSTAR - A. Ptak et al
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1412.3120 > 09 Dec 2014