Thursday06 February 2025
ps-ua.com

Black holes are doing the unexpected: astronomers are astonished by a new discovery.

The discovery challenges the prevailing views on the growth of supermassive black holes and the speed of their rotation.
Астрономы удивлены неожиданным открытием о черных дырах, которые проявляют себя совершенно иначе, чем предполагалось ранее.

The universe is filled with rotating black holes, particularly supermassive black holes located at the centers of galaxies. A new study has revealed that supermassive black holes rotate faster than previously thought and that their formation occurs differently than assumed, as reported by Universe Today.

To describe the characteristics of a supermassive black hole, two key parameters are used: its mass and rotation speed. However, measuring the mass of a black hole is challenging, and measuring its rotation speed is even more difficult. Nonetheless, these parameters are crucial for understanding the evolution of black holes.

The researchers utilized data from years of observations to measure the rotation speeds of supermassive black holes found in the centers of galaxies, ranging from today to about 7 billion years ago.

Astronomers also closely examined the accretion disks of black holes, which are the regions surrounding a black hole where matter accumulates before being drawn in. Understanding the mass of a black hole and the structure of its accretion disk provides data that allows for the measurement of the black hole's rotation speed. Typically, astronomers estimate the rotation speed by observing how matter behaves as it falls into the black hole.

According to the scientists, the findings from the study of hundreds of supermassive black holes were a significant surprise. Astronomers discovered that supermassive black holes are rotating too quickly to have formed solely from the merging of galaxies. It appears that these black holes have largely gained their immense mass through the gradual accumulation of matter, which has accelerated their rotation speed.

Черная дыра

This discovery challenges the prevailing belief that supermassive black holes are always formed through the collision of galaxies. In other words, when galaxies merge, their central supermassive black holes merge as well.

The study showed that many supermassive black holes not only rotate faster than expected, but even more surprisingly, the most distant black holes rotate faster than those closer to us. Astronomers conclude that in the early universe, supermassive black holes had a greater rotation speed, which then slowed down over time.

During this time, supermassive black holes in the early universe acquired most of their mass through the absorption of matter, such as stars and interstellar gas.

Therefore, the faster rotation speeds of black holes in the early universe can be attributed to gradual mass accumulation, but as two black holes merged during galaxy collisions, their rotation speeds slowed down, according to the researchers.