Science News - 2010 March 03
Astronomers have finally gotten a firmer grip on how supermassive black holes in the centers of most galaxies gobble up gas from their surroundings. In a new study, two astronomers neatly explain how stars drag swirling gases toward a galaxy’s center, bringing them close enough that the black holes can suck them in like water down a bathtub drain.
The core of the Andromeda galaxy shows an off-center ring of older stars (red) in this artist’s
rendition. A supermassive black hole (black dot) sits at the center of an inner ring of younger stars
(blue). The lopsided ring of old stars may be the remnant of a previous youthful disk that helped
suck swirling gas into the galaxy’s center, new research suggests. (A. Field, NASA, ESA)