14 DAY TRIAL // The collision of galaxies results in the emergence of super-massive black holes, researchers found recently. These black holes would be the most powerful sources of radiation in the universe, it seems. The fact that these giant black holes radiate large amounts of energy could explain why the centers of a tenth of all galaxies generate more energy than the existing stars would provide.
Some of these “active galactic nuclei” are capable of radiating more energy than the entire Milky Way galaxy does, yet it all comes from a space that is smaller than our solar system, researches claim. The aforementioned enormous black holes, up to billions of times the mass of our sun at core of these galaxies, offer an explanation for the radiated energy.
“These monster black holes evolve in a way that is strongly related to the amount of dark matter that surrounds them and that is intimately related to the probability of galaxies to merge,” study lead author Nico Cappelluti, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, commented on the findings, a recent article on Space reads. The scientists would have their findings explained in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
According to the new study, these active galactic nuclei become stimulated at times when two galaxies merge into one due to their mutual gravitational attraction. Matter is shaken up during the process, and material is pushed towards the center of the new galaxy, thus creating the perfect conditions for the forming of a massive black hole. While the concept is not a new one, the study comes up with further observational evidence that it stands up.
“We find it very exciting how the results of our data analysis match the prediction of computer simulations that assume that the black holes are switched on by galaxy mergers,” Cappelluti stated, the news site reports. According to him, these active galactic nuclei seem to be switched on some 700 million years following the collision of two galaxies. The next step in the research would be the finding of a relationship between the energy output of an active galactic nucleus and the mass of dark matter it lives in.