The largest black holes could eat as well as the small ones, according to NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory and ground-based telescopes. This discovery supports the impact of Einstein's relativity theory that black holes of all sizes with similar characteristics, and will be useful for predicting the properties of a suspected new class of black holes.
The conclusion comes from a large campaign of observation of the spiral galaxy M81, which is about 12 million light years from Earth. In the center of M81 is a black hole that over 70 million times more massive than the sun, and generates energy and radiation as it moves gas in the central region of the galaxy to the inside at high speeds.
In contrast, the so-called stellar mass black holes, which is more than 10 times more massive than the sun, have a different food source. These smaller black holes acquire new material by drawing gas from the companion orbiting stars. Due to the large and small black holes exist in different environments with different sources of material to feed, a question remained whether they feed in the same way.
With these new observations and a detailed theoretical model, a team of researchers compared the characteristics of M81's black hole with the mass stellar black holes. The results show that either large or small, black holes indeed appear to eat like any other, and a similar distribution of X-rays, optical light and radio.
One of the effects of Einstein's theory of general relativity theory is that black holes are simply objects and their masses and spins determine their impact on the space-time. The latest research results suggest that this simplicity manifests itself despite complicated effects on the environment.
"This confirms that the feeding patterns for black holes of different sizes can be very similar," says Sera Markoff of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, led the study. "We thought that was the case, but until now we have not been able to nail."
The model that Markoff and her colleagues used to the black holes includes a silent disk of material spinning around the black hole. This structure would mainly produce X-rays and optical light. A region of hot gas around the black hole would be seen largely UV and X-ray light. A major contribution to the radio and X-ray light comes from jets, by the black hole. Multi-wavelength data is necessary to separate these overlapping light sources.
"If we look at the data, it appears that our model works equally well for the huge black hole in M81 as for the smaller guys," said Michael Nowak, a co-author from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Everything about this huge black hole looks the same unless it is almost 10 million times greater."
Among actively feeding the black hole in M81 is one of the dimmest, probably because it is "undernourished". However, it is one of the brightest as seen from Earth because of the relative proximity, so that high-quality observations.
"It seems as if the undernourished Black holes are the easiest in practice, perhaps because we can see, closer to the black hole," says Andrew Young from the University of Bristol in England. "They seem not to care too much get where their food."
This work should be useful for predicting the properties of a third, unconfirmed class called intermediate mass black holes with masses lie between those of the stellar and supermassive black holes. Some possible members of this class have been identified, but the evidence is controversial, so that specific forecasts for the properties of these black holes should be very helpful.
In addition to Chandra, three radio arrays (the Giant Meter Wave Radio Telescope, the Very Large Array and the Very Long Baseline Array), two millimeter telescopes (the Plateau de Bure interferometer and the Submillimeter Array) and Lick Observatory in the optics used to Monitoring of the M81. These observations were at the same time to ensure that brightness fluctuations due to changes in feeding rates are not confuse the results. Chandra X-ray is the only satellite able to isolate the soft X-rays of the black hole from the issuance of the rest of the galaxy.
This result confirmed earlier less detailed work by Andrea Merloni from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany and colleagues that suggested that the basic characteristics of larger black holes are similar to the small ones. Their study was not to simultaneous multi-wavelength observations nor the application of a detailed physical model.
The conclusion comes from a large campaign of observation of the spiral galaxy M81, which is about 12 million light years from Earth. In the center of M81 is a black hole that over 70 million times more massive than the sun, and generates energy and radiation as it moves gas in the central region of the galaxy to the inside at high speeds.
In contrast, the so-called stellar mass black holes, which is more than 10 times more massive than the sun, have a different food source. These smaller black holes acquire new material by drawing gas from the companion orbiting stars. Due to the large and small black holes exist in different environments with different sources of material to feed, a question remained whether they feed in the same way.
With these new observations and a detailed theoretical model, a team of researchers compared the characteristics of M81's black hole with the mass stellar black holes. The results show that either large or small, black holes indeed appear to eat like any other, and a similar distribution of X-rays, optical light and radio.
One of the effects of Einstein's theory of general relativity theory is that black holes are simply objects and their masses and spins determine their impact on the space-time. The latest research results suggest that this simplicity manifests itself despite complicated effects on the environment.
"This confirms that the feeding patterns for black holes of different sizes can be very similar," says Sera Markoff of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, led the study. "We thought that was the case, but until now we have not been able to nail."
The model that Markoff and her colleagues used to the black holes includes a silent disk of material spinning around the black hole. This structure would mainly produce X-rays and optical light. A region of hot gas around the black hole would be seen largely UV and X-ray light. A major contribution to the radio and X-ray light comes from jets, by the black hole. Multi-wavelength data is necessary to separate these overlapping light sources.
"If we look at the data, it appears that our model works equally well for the huge black hole in M81 as for the smaller guys," said Michael Nowak, a co-author from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Everything about this huge black hole looks the same unless it is almost 10 million times greater."
Among actively feeding the black hole in M81 is one of the dimmest, probably because it is "undernourished". However, it is one of the brightest as seen from Earth because of the relative proximity, so that high-quality observations.
"It seems as if the undernourished Black holes are the easiest in practice, perhaps because we can see, closer to the black hole," says Andrew Young from the University of Bristol in England. "They seem not to care too much get where their food."
This work should be useful for predicting the properties of a third, unconfirmed class called intermediate mass black holes with masses lie between those of the stellar and supermassive black holes. Some possible members of this class have been identified, but the evidence is controversial, so that specific forecasts for the properties of these black holes should be very helpful.
In addition to Chandra, three radio arrays (the Giant Meter Wave Radio Telescope, the Very Large Array and the Very Long Baseline Array), two millimeter telescopes (the Plateau de Bure interferometer and the Submillimeter Array) and Lick Observatory in the optics used to Monitoring of the M81. These observations were at the same time to ensure that brightness fluctuations due to changes in feeding rates are not confuse the results. Chandra X-ray is the only satellite able to isolate the soft X-rays of the black hole from the issuance of the rest of the galaxy.
This result confirmed earlier less detailed work by Andrea Merloni from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany and colleagues that suggested that the basic characteristics of larger black holes are similar to the small ones. Their study was not to simultaneous multi-wavelength observations nor the application of a detailed physical model.
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