Information from NASA’s retired Spitzer House Telescope has given scientists new insights into why some supermassive black holes shine in a different way than others.
These photos of the Andromeda galaxy use knowledge from NASA’s retired Spitzer House Telescope. A number of wavelengths are proven within the picture on the left, revealing stars, mud, and areas of star formation. The picture on the proper exhibits mud solely, making it simpler to see the galaxy’s underlying construction. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech In photos from NASA’s retired Spitzer House Telescope , streams of mud 1000’s of light-years lengthy stream towards the supermassive black gap on the coronary heart of the Andromeda galaxy. It seems these streams might help clarify how black holes billions of occasions the mass of our Solar satiate their large appetites however stay “quiet” eaters.
As supermassive black holes gobble up fuel and mud, the fabric will get heated up simply earlier than it falls in, creating unbelievable gentle exhibits – typically brighter than a whole galaxy stuffed with stars. When the fabric is consumed in clumps of various sizes, the brightness of the black gap fluctuates.
However the black holes on the middle of the Milky Manner (Earth’s residence galaxy) and Andromeda (certainly one of our nearest galactic neighbors) are among the many quietest eaters within the universe. What little gentle they emit doesn’t differ considerably in brightness, suggesting they’re consuming a small however regular stream of meals, quite than massive clumps. The streams strategy the black gap little by little, and in a spiral, much like the way in which the water swirls down a drain.
Trying to find Andromeda’s Meals Supply
A research revealed earlier this yr took the speculation {that a} quiet supermassive black gap feeds on a gentle stream of fuel and utilized it to the Andromeda galaxy. Utilizing laptop fashions, the authors simulated how fuel and mud in proximity to Andromeda’s supermassive black gap would possibly behave over time. The simulation demonstrated {that a} small disk of scorching fuel might kind near the supermassive black gap and feed it repeatedly. The disk might be replenished and maintained by quite a few streams of fuel and mud.
However the researchers additionally discovered that these streams have to remain inside a selected dimension and stream fee; in any other case, the matter would fall into the black gap in irregular clumps, inflicting extra gentle fluctuation.
This close-up view of the middle of the Andromeda galaxy, taken by NASA’s retired Spitzer House Telescope, is annotated with blue dotted strains to spotlight the trail of two mud streams flowing towards the supermassive black gap on the galaxy’s middle… Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech” When the authors in contrast their findings to knowledge from Spitzer and NASA’s Hubble House Telescope , they discovered spirals of mud beforehand recognized by Spitzer that match inside these constraints. From this, the authors concluded that the spirals are feeding Andromeda’s supermassive black gap.
“It is a nice instance of scientists reexamining archival knowledge to disclose extra about galaxy dynamics by evaluating it to the most recent laptop simulations,” mentioned Almudena Prieto, an astrophysicist on the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and the College Observatory Munich, and a co-author on the research revealed this yr. “We now have 20-year-old knowledge telling us issues we didn’t acknowledge in it once we first collected it.”
A Deeper Take a look at Andromeda
Launched in 2003 and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Spitzer studied the universe in infrared gentle, which is invisible to human eyes. Totally different wavelengths reveal completely different options of Andromeda, together with hotter sources of sunshine, like stars, and cooler sources, like mud.
By separating these wavelengths and looking out on the mud alone, astronomers can see the galaxy’s “skeleton” – locations the place fuel has coalesced and cooled, typically forming mud, creating circumstances for stars to kind. This view of Andromeda revealed a couple of surprises. As an example, though it’s a spiral galaxy just like the Milky Manner, Andromeda is dominated by a big mud ring quite than distinct arms circling its middle. The pictures additionally revealed a secondary gap in a single portion of the ring the place a dwarf galaxy handed by way of.
Andromeda’s proximity to the Milky Manner means it appears to be like bigger than different galaxies from Earth: Seen with the bare eye, Andromeda could be about six occasions the width of the Moon ( about 3 levels ). Even with a area of view wider than Hubble’s, Spitzer needed to take 11,000 snapshots to create this complete image of Andromeda.
Extra In regards to the Mission
JPL managed the Spitzer House Telescope mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington till the mission was retired in January 2020. Science operations had been performed on the Spitzer Science Middle at Caltech. Spacecraft operations had been based mostly at Lockheed Martin House in Littleton, Colorado. Information are archived on the Infrared Science Archive operated by IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
