A photo from open sources Astronomers have discovered the smallest of famous galaxies, in the core of which lies a huge black hole weighing about 21 million solar masses. The discovery gives reason suggest that supermassive black holes can be much more than previously thought.
In the heart of almost every large galaxy, such as the Milky Way, there is a supermassive black hole with a mass of millions to billions of solar masses. They exist from the time of the early Universe, some of which formed after 800 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists are trying to figure out can dwarf galaxies conceal supermassive black holes.
According to astronomers, a galaxy is considered dwarf if the luminosity is about 50 times less than the luminosity of the Milky Way. Such galaxies are much shorter than the Milky Way, whose diameter is 100 thousand light years. Wherein Dwarf galaxies are more common than galaxies of the type ours. Scientists have explored a rarer type of dwarf galaxy, so called ultra-compact dwarf galaxy – one of the most dense clusters of stars in the universe.
Most often they are found in clusters of galaxies – cities Of the Universe, – Space.com quotes the words of the head of the study. Enila Seth from Utah State University in Salt Lake City.
Thus, the ultra-compact dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1, investigated using 8-meter optical infrared the Gemini North telescope on the island of Hawaii and NASA’s Hubble Space Observatory, has become the smallest of galaxies famous for science, sheltered so huge black hole. M60-UCD1 is about 54 million distant from Earth light years. It orbits the M60 – one of the largest galaxies next to our galaxy – at a distance of only about 22 000 light-years from its center. This distance is closer than from the sun. to the center of the Milky Way.
A photo from open sources
Huge galaxy m60
Scientists have found that the stars in the center of the M60-UCD1 move with at a speed of about 370,000 km / h, which is too fast for simple stars, not affected by the black hole. It helped researchers determine the mass of the giant, which amounted to 21 million solar masses or 15 percent of a dwarf galaxy of 140 million solar masses. For comparison: supermassive black hole in the heart The Milky Way is about 4 million times more massive than the Sun and takes less than 0.01 percent of the total mass of its galaxy.
This is an amazing discovery, considering that the Milky Way is 500 times more and 1000 times more massive than the dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1, – The scientists said.
The results of the study led scientists to the idea that ultra-compact dwarf galaxies are remnants of more large galaxies. According to them, in the past (maybe 10 billion years ago) the very large M60-UCD1, numbering about 10 billion stars, met with the even larger galaxy M60, which took away stars and dark matter from her.
Researchers believe that one day the M60 will completely absorb M60-UCD1, and her black hole will merge with a 4.5 billion black hole solar masses and a thousand times more massive than the one in the center Milky Way.
The nature of the motion of stars in ultra-compact dwarf galaxies indicates the presence of supermassive black holes in them. So way, the real amount of supermassive black holes in nearby areas of the universe may be double that previously thought.
The findings of scientists were published in a scientific journal Nature.
Universe Galaxy Milky Way Sun Black Hole
