Black holes and galaxies: A closer link.A new study offers the first direct evidence that supermassive black holes grow along with the galaxies they inhabit. Astronomers had suspected as much, but because most galaxies today are billions of years old, the notion was difficult to test. In their work, Michael R. Merrifield of the University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a leading research and teaching university in the city of Nottingham, in the East Midlands of England. It is a member of the Russell Group, and of Universitas 21, an international network of research-led universities. in England and his colleagues sought galaxies spanning a range of ages. In this way, they could determine how black holes that lurk at the hearts of these galaxies evolved over time. To measure galactic age, the astronomers analyzed the color and intensity of starlight. Massive stars, for instance, live briefly and emit lots of blue light. If a galaxy isn't in the throes throe n. 1. A severe pang or spasm of pain, as in childbirth. See Synonyms at pain. 2. throes A condition of agonizing struggle or trouble: a country in the throes of economic collapse. of starbirth yet is radiating strongly at the blue end of the spectrum, it's likely to be relatively young. Merrifield's team found that Andromeda and 22 other nearby galaxies believed to house central black holes range in age from 4 billion to 12 billion years. Moreover, the researchers determined that the lightest black holes reside in the youngest galaxies, and the heaviest ones in the oldest. Black holes apparently bulk up as they dine on stars and gas in their host galaxies. Mergers between galaxies in the young cosmos may have hastened that process by driving gas toward the core black holes, notes Abraham Loeb of Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. . Merrifield, Duncan A. Forbes of the University of Birmingham Due to Birmingham's role as a centre of light engineering, the university traditionally had a special focus on science, engineering and commerce, as well as coal mining. It now teaches a full range of academic subjects and has five-star rating for teaching and research in several in England, and Alejandro I. Terlevich of Swinburne University in Hawthorn hawthorn, any species of the genus Crataegus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), shrubs and trees widely distributed in north temperate climates and especially common in E North America. , Australia, report their study in the April 1 MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) is one of the world's leading scientific journals in astronomy and astrophysics. It has been in continuous existence since 1827 and publishes peer-reviewed letters and papers reporting original research in relevant . "This new work is further evidence that the growth of the hole is related to the evolution of the galaxy," says Martin J. Rees of the University of Cambridge in England. |
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