Size does Matter
January 3rd 2009 05:03
Category: No Category
Size does matter as far as black holes are concerned bigger is not always better .
Black holes are enormous entities that have powerful amounts of gravitational forces that wont let light escap, in fact creating dark void that we cannot see inside . Astronomers have found evidence of a massive black hole at the heart of a dwarf elliptical galaxy. The dwarf galaxy is just 1 percent the mass of our own Milky Way, and its black hole is estimated to be somewhere between 1 million to 50 million times the mass of our Sun. It thought that these massive black holes anchor most if not all large galaxies together.
New research suggests black holes have an upper size limit. Some black holes are huge spanning several billion times bigger than our Sun. Recent studies using optical and X-ray imaging put a limit of 10 billion solar masses. The limit thought to keep the black hole working and accepting large volumes of matter any larger that say 10 billion solar masses and the black hole would be unable to grow beyond its capacity to feed itself vast gravitational forces and extremely hot gasses would stop the black hole from growing beyond its limits to exist. Galaxies large and small are believed to have this type of black hole.
The result of what a black hole can literally tear apart portions of another galaxy can be seen in the composite image of a system known as 3C321
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans et al.; Optical/UV: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/VLA/CfA/D.Evans et al., STFC/JBO/MERLIN
Black holes are enormous entities that have powerful amounts of gravitational forces that wont let light escap, in fact creating dark void that we cannot see inside . Astronomers have found evidence of a massive black hole at the heart of a dwarf elliptical galaxy. The dwarf galaxy is just 1 percent the mass of our own Milky Way, and its black hole is estimated to be somewhere between 1 million to 50 million times the mass of our Sun. It thought that these massive black holes anchor most if not all large galaxies together.
New research suggests black holes have an upper size limit. Some black holes are huge spanning several billion times bigger than our Sun. Recent studies using optical and X-ray imaging put a limit of 10 billion solar masses. The limit thought to keep the black hole working and accepting large volumes of matter any larger that say 10 billion solar masses and the black hole would be unable to grow beyond its capacity to feed itself vast gravitational forces and extremely hot gasses would stop the black hole from growing beyond its limits to exist. Galaxies large and small are believed to have this type of black hole.
The result of what a black hole can literally tear apart portions of another galaxy can be seen in the composite image of a system known as 3C321
image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, the first time such an interaction has documented in image form.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans et al.; Optical/UV: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/VLA/CfA/D.Evans et al., STFC/JBO/MERLIN
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Comment by Damo
Good stuff.
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Mr Nice Guy
Pop Culturist
Pop Rock Factory
I always like to compare our 'understanding' of space and creation with that of a dolphin and nuclear fusion - intelligent creatures but never a hope to really being able to work it out - any probably never meant to.
I'd like to think there are some answers to a whole lotta things out there.
Keep up the good work.
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
Thank you for the comments. Even the professionals have a difficult time understanding what make the universe tick. You can follow the mathematics work out the physics but some things can’t be fully understood and as perhaps like Mr. Nice Guy said not meant to. We humans are an inquisitive bunch.