Astronomers Spot a Rogue Supermassive Black Hole Hurtling Through Space (universetoday.com) 42
"Astronomers spotted an unexpected trail in the gas surrounding a dwarf galaxy while using the Hubble Space Telescope...." writes Hot Hardware. "The light emitting from the trail traveled more than 7.5 billion years to reach Earth and is thought to be traveling at a breakneck speed of 1,600km/s (3.5 million mph).
Science Alert says it could be "the smoking gun pointing to a runaway supermassive black hole."
More from Universe Today: Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) lurk in the center of large galaxies like ours. From their commanding position in the galaxy's heart, they feed on gas, dust, stars, and anything else that strays too close, growing more massive as time passes. But in rare circumstances, an SMBH can be forced out of its position and hurtle through space as a rogue SMBH.
In a new paper, researchers from Canada, Australia, and the USA present evidence of a rogue SMBH that's tearing through space and interacting with the circumgalactic medium (CGM.) Along the way, the giant is creating shock waves and triggering star formation.... The paper hasn't been peer-reviewed yet....
In their paper, the authors explain how an SMBH can be cast out of its host galaxy. It always starts when galaxies merge. That leads to the formation of a binary SMBH at the center of the merger remnant. The binary SMBH can be very long-lived, surviving for as long as one billion years before merging. If during that time, a third SMBH reaches the galactic center, then a three-body interaction can give one of the SMBHs a velocity boost, and it can be driven from the galaxy.
Hot Hardware adds that "This is not the first time a supermassive black hole has been found ejected from the center of its host galaxy. However, this is the first time one has been detected speeding across intergalactic space and believed to be inactive."
And RockDoctor (Slashdot reader #15,477) explains that "After the collision and ejection from the galaxy core, the passage of the black hole through the galaxy and it's surrounding material produced a burst of star formation along that line, which we now see as a faint linear streak of light....
"Those who like doom-laden prophecies will be upset to hear that, because we can see this moving across the plane of the sky, it is never going to come any where near us."
Science Alert says it could be "the smoking gun pointing to a runaway supermassive black hole."
More from Universe Today: Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) lurk in the center of large galaxies like ours. From their commanding position in the galaxy's heart, they feed on gas, dust, stars, and anything else that strays too close, growing more massive as time passes. But in rare circumstances, an SMBH can be forced out of its position and hurtle through space as a rogue SMBH.
In a new paper, researchers from Canada, Australia, and the USA present evidence of a rogue SMBH that's tearing through space and interacting with the circumgalactic medium (CGM.) Along the way, the giant is creating shock waves and triggering star formation.... The paper hasn't been peer-reviewed yet....
In their paper, the authors explain how an SMBH can be cast out of its host galaxy. It always starts when galaxies merge. That leads to the formation of a binary SMBH at the center of the merger remnant. The binary SMBH can be very long-lived, surviving for as long as one billion years before merging. If during that time, a third SMBH reaches the galactic center, then a three-body interaction can give one of the SMBHs a velocity boost, and it can be driven from the galaxy.
Hot Hardware adds that "This is not the first time a supermassive black hole has been found ejected from the center of its host galaxy. However, this is the first time one has been detected speeding across intergalactic space and believed to be inactive."
And RockDoctor (Slashdot reader #15,477) explains that "After the collision and ejection from the galaxy core, the passage of the black hole through the galaxy and it's surrounding material produced a burst of star formation along that line, which we now see as a faint linear streak of light....
"Those who like doom-laden prophecies will be upset to hear that, because we can see this moving across the plane of the sky, it is never going to come any where near us."
Re: (Score:3)
No, but a lot of tinfoil-hatters are, and it's easier to keep the lid on it than to try to rein in the rumors of doom and gloom once it spreads.
Re: Why include the last line? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
The corollary of the last paragraph is that if a rogue black hole is hurtling directly towards us, we won't be able to see it coming.
No. We know this SMBH is not coming toward us because we can see it moving laterally. But if it were heading straight toward us, we would still be able to see it. It just wouldn't be moving laterally.
SMBHs emit x-rays, and the faster they move, the more they emit. They also cause turbulence in the interstellar medium that would be visible.
But this SMBH is 7.5 billion light-years away and moving at 1,600 km/sec. So if it was earth-bound, it wouldn't arrive for 7.5B * (300,000/1,600) = 1.4 trillion years. The
Re: (Score:2)
No. We know this SMBH is not coming toward us because we can see it moving laterally.
Of course it's not coming here. It's being celestial body shamed by referring to it as "supermassive" when it prefers to be called "full figured"; so now it's heading towards a judgement-free galaxy.
Re: Why include the last line? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just remember: the dot on the plane window that's not moving is the one you have to worry about.
Why? Its most likely a spec of dirt.
Re: Why include the last line? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Even if we did, what could we do against it?
If you cannot do anything about a problem, you needn't waste resources on trying to detect it. Same deal with a plane crash, if you're sitting in a plane that is about to crash, there is no need to panic. There is fuck all you can do.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
"The sky is falling, a super fast moving black hole is going to devour us all! Repent, sinners!"
Re:Why include the last line? (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember those people who to this day claim you get injected with a tracking device when you get a covid vaccine, or that millions of people are dying from the vaccine? Yeah, they're the same ones who would either promulgate or believe this black hole is on its way to destroy us.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, they're the same ones who would either promulgate or believe this black hole is on its way to destroy us.
On the other hand. there's a difference between "believe" and "hope". :-)
Re: Why include the last line? (Score:1)
Stereotype, much?
Re: (Score:2)
In addition to the usual list of cranks mentioned below, there are also the religious nutjobs who want to see a black hole headed in our direction. It would make it easier to get "converts". And then there are the more mundane whacks who believe in, I don't, Jewish space lasers and Gazpacho Police. It turns out the Jewish space lasers, in addition to starting forest fires, turn people gay. I don't want to go into what the Gazpacho Police police do but it involves garbanzo beans and other vegetables in an un
Tiresome writing (Score:3)
Somehow people never get tired of using the word "hurtling" when talking about objects moving through space. It is moving on a trajectory under well known (and arguably the easiest to understand) physical laws.
Conversely, don't all such objects "hurtle?" You are invariably talking about very large amounts of energy regardless.
Either way it is meaningless. Not exciting as intended. A C- in creative writing class.
Re:Tiresome writing (Score:4, Insightful)
Also the thought to be traveling"comment RE the speed of light. Come on now. we KNOW what the speed of light is.
Hurtle (Score:2)
The new S&M-based online word game.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Thanks, I'll add "hurtle" to my list of useless media words like "plummet" and "skyrocket" used where "decrease" and "increase" would suffice
Because plummet [cambridge.org] and decrease [cambridge.org] have the same meaning, as do skyrocket and increase.
You must either be educated in Florida or a programmer.
Re: Tiresome writing (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Tiresome writing (Score:5, Informative)
Somehow people never get tired of using the word "hurtling" when talking about objects moving through space. It is moving on a trajectory under well known (and arguably the easiest to understand) physical laws.
Conversely, don't all such objects "hurtle?" You are invariably talking about very large amounts of energy regardless.
Either way it is meaningless. Not exciting as intended. A C- in creative writing class.
Hurtle [dictionary.com]: to drive violently; fling; dash.
Sounds like the perfect definition of what happened based on:
But in rare circumstances, an SMBH can be forced out of its position and hurtle through space as a rogue SMBH.
. . .
In their paper, the authors explain how an SMBH can be cast out of its host galaxy.
. . .
Hot Hardware adds that "This is not the first time a supermassive black hole has been found ejected from the center of its host galaxy.
But yes, let's criticize the wording while not commenting on the discovery itself. Because that's what's important.
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair, the word "hurtle" does not appear in TFA. I guess EditorDavid just felt like waxing poetic.
Re: (Score:2)
But yes, let's criticize the wording while not commenting on the discovery itself. Because that's what's important.
Don't get your panties in a bunch. Robert Heinlein was making fun of the use of this exact same word 60 years ago in one of his novels. Can you name which one?
I propose "Rogue SMBH Pacman'ing.." (Score:2)
OMG we need Rogue Black Hold Control Laws! (Score:3)
No no no stop it (Score:4, Insightful)
"The light emitting from the trail traveled more than 7.5 billion years to reach Earth and is thought to be traveling at a breakneck speed of 1,600km/s (3.5 million mph)."
Light only travels one speed... and it's not 1600 km/s.
Perhaps that's the speed of the purported black hole?
Re: (Score:2)
RE, perhaps the speed of the object. first relative to what, second I doubt any physical object travels that fast. Too high of a percentage of the speed of light.
Re:No no no stop it (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No no no stop it (Score:4)
The speed of light is dependent on the medium it is traveling through, with c defined as the speed of light in a vacuum.
In some mediums such as water, it is not that hard for sub-atomic particles to travel faster then light, it produces Cherenkov radiation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The sort of concentrated mass required... (Score:4, Informative)
... to eject a supermassive black hole at 1600km/s must be absolutely staggering. Not a part of the universe that would be a good place to be an emerging lifeform I suspect.
Re:The sort of concentrated mass required... (Score:4, Informative)
Well, it's certainly a significant mass.
Which is why the original authors (in the paper I linked to [arxiv.org] in my original submission [slashdot.org]) suggested that this isolated SMBH was the result of three galaxies merging at different times and their SMBHs interacting to eject the lightest one (or two) of the three galaxies SMBHs leaving the largest more or less "at rest" in the merged galaxy.
Most galaxies have a SMBH at their core, and their SMBHs have a fairly consistent mass compared to the whole galaxy (1~2%) ; small galaxies largely grow by merging to make larger galaxies, with their SMBHs probably merging - which would be a "bad hair" day for anything alive in the galaxy (if such a merger happened today, we'd probably notice it with our GW telescopes). But if a recently-merged galaxy met a third galaxy (with SMBH) before the first two SMBH's had merged, then the three SMBHs could interact in a way to eject one or two of the SMBHs (most likely, the smaller ones). This is te same type of gravitational interaction proposed for Jupiter to have "protected" Earth from being hammered by comets by ejecting them.
The friendly paper (link above ; I don't know if the journalistic pages linked from TFS) discusses that, and reports a possible trace from another SMBH also ejected from the source galaxy.
Yes, you need a big mass, in a dense configuration, to throw an SMBH around. Which the people who wrote the paper considered, in some depth. They write better than I do.
Maybe, maybe not.
The radiation blast from a central SMBH merger in a galaxy might be a bad day ... for half the surface of a life-bearing planet. The other half ... I'm not so sure. But would it have precluded life from developing in that galaxy between mergers? I don't see that being a big problem, if for no other reason than the structure of our galaxy shows evidence of having been produced by merger of several dozen smaller galaxies over time. Whether their SMBHs merged into ours, or were ejected, we can't tell (black holes have mass, charge, angular momentum, and that's it for the list of measurable properties), but it clearly didn't prevent us from being formed and developing life.
You've got me thinking about galactic evolution now.
weapon (Score:2)
This sounds like a weapon being used by one Kardashev type III civilization against another. Strange, though, that it is moving at less than 1% of the speed of light. Perhaps it is a test shot from a weapon still in development.
“It is never going to come any where near us (Score:2)
You’ll never see the SMBH with your name on it.
3.5 Million MPH relative to what? (Score:2)
How is it determined that it's moving at all?
Re: (Score:2)
I've already closed the window to the paper, so it would be as quick for you to RTFP and get the answer for yourself, as for me to go and read it three times more. As I recall, the star-forming regions in the wake had yellowed more at one end than the other, which gives both sense of movement and time-since-disruption. But RTFP - I may have forgotten already.
You do know that bright, massive s
Re: more black hole nonsense. (Score:1)
But doesn't CockDoctor sound way too confident to be wrong on this one?
doom (Score:2)
"Those who like doom-laden prophecies will be upset to hear that, because we can see this moving across the plane of the sky, it is never going to come any where near us."
Those who like doom-laden prophecies realize that if one just like that were coming straight towards us, we wouldn't see it because it swallows up the light of the trail behind it.
We literally won't see it coming.