Tag

Accretion Disk

All articles tagged with #accretion disk

space7 days ago•3 min saved

James Webb Spots a New Class of Star Fueled by Black Holes

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists identified a new object class—'black hole stars'—dense gas clouds fully enveloping a black hole that are powered by the black hole’s energy rather than fusion, yielding a brightness about 100 billion times that of a normal star. These objects appear as extremely bright red dots in Webb’s deep-field images from the cosmic dawn, implying such systems formed in the early universe and could shed light on how supermassive black holes arise; they are not accretion disks and require further study.

via jalopnik.com|

#accretion-disk #black-hole-star #cosmic-dawn

space1 month ago•104 min saved

Ancient quasar reveals rapid black hole growth in the universe’s infancy

Astronomers using ESA’s Euclid telescope identified 31 quasars dating to about 670 million years after the Big Bang, including the oldest quasar yet observed that shines with the light of roughly a trillion suns, helping explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly and shedding light on the epoch of reionization; the findings, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, come from Euclid’s Wide Survey which will map a large portion of the sky.

via Space|

#accretion-disk #black-hole #early-universe

space2 months ago•6 min saved

Ancient Flickering Quasar Reveals Early Growth of Supermassive Black Holes

Astronomers report the discovery of J0439+1634, the oldest known flickering quasar, whose light has traveled more than 13 billion years to Earth, dating to the cosmic dawn when the Universe was about 850 million years old. The quasar appears to host a pancake-shaped, surprisingly mature accretion disk feeding a supermassive black hole over 600 million solar masses, making it extremely bright. Multi-wavelength data, including NEOWISE infrared observations, show irregular flickering driven by variable gas inflow, providing direct clues about early black hole growth and enabling new mass-measurement approaches. The study suggests growth processes seen in nearby quasars were already in place early on, and future facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will hunt for even earlier examples.

via ScienceAlert|

#accretion-disk #black-hole #cosmic-dawn

space2 months ago•5 min saved

When a Star Eats a Primordial Black Hole: Explosive or Quiet Endings

New research models how a star capturing a primordial black hole (PBH) would evolve, finding that capture is most likely in three-body systems and leads to two possible fates: a rapid, disk-driven explosion (a Hawking-star) that destroys the star, or a slower, quasi-steady consumption that leaves a massive, high-spin remnant. The explosive path would produce multimodal electromagnetic signals (X-ray flash, UV/blue transient, possibly a low-luminosity GRB) while the quiet path could emit gravitational waves in the future. Observing these outcomes could constrain how much PBHs contribute to dark matter.

via Universe Today|

#accretion-disk #dark-matter #gravitational-waves

science3 months ago•2 min saved

Webb Telescope Reveals Fiery Core and Hidden Bar in the Squid Galaxy

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captures Messier 77, the Squid Galaxy, in infrared to reveal its blazing central active galactic nucleus powered by an 8‑million‑solar‑mass black hole, plus a hidden straight central bar bisecting the spiral arms and a bright starburst ring fed by gas and dust. The edge-on–like, dust-veiled core shines through in MIRI imagery, while diffraction spikes are instrument effects. At about 45 million light-years away, this nearby galaxy offers rich detail and ongoing puzzles, including a surprisingly weak gamma‑ray signal but notable neutrino activity.

via Futurism|

#accretion-disk #active-galactic-nucleus #james-webb-space-telescope

science5 months ago•6 min saved

Black Hole Merger in Galactic Nucleus May Have Lit Up the Sky

Astronomers connecting the November 2024 gravitational-wave event S241125n with a brief gamma-ray and X-ray flash propose the merger happened inside the accretion disk of a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. If true, the environment would feed rapid accretion and jets, producing light from an event usually expected to be dark, offering a new scenario for how black hole mergers in galactic nuclei might be observed. Further observations and modeling are needed to confirm this explanation.

via ScienceAlert|

#accretion-disk #active-galactic-nucleus #black-holes

space5 months ago•8 min saved

Warped spacetime powers flickering light in newborn magnetars

Astrophysicists propose a magnetar+Lense-Thirring model to explain the zigzag, chirped light curves of Type I superluminous supernovae, like SN 2024afav. A newborn magnetar’s rapid spin twists spacetime; a misaligned, shrinking accretion disk precesses and intermittently blocks or redirects radiation, producing regular brightness bumps and a shrinking period. The model fits the observed data, yields a 4.2-millisecond spin and strong magnetic field, and could unify explanations for several such supernovae; future Rubin Observatory discoveries will test it.

via Ars Technica|

#accretion-disk #frame-dragging #lense-thirring

science5 months ago•26 min saved

Frame-dragging magnetar powers a superluminous supernova

High-cadence observations of the SLSN-I SN 2024afav reveal chirped light-curve bumps linked to a magnetar central engine with an infalling disk undergoing Lense–Thirring precession. Modeling constrains the magnetar’s spin to about 4.2 ms and its magnetic field to ~1.6×10^14 G, providing the first observational evidence of LT frame-dragging in a magnetar’s environment and supporting magnetar spin-down as the source of extreme luminosity in SLSNe-I.

via Nature|

#accretion-disk #lense-thirring #magnetar

space7 months ago•6 min saved

First Real-Time Movie of a Black Hole Aims to Decode Galactic Evolution

Astronomers with the Event Horizon Telescope plan the first time-resolved movie of a supermassive black hole, targeting M87 to measure spin and jet-launching mechanisms. By stitching data from a world-spanning telescope network, they hope to move beyond the 2019 image and illuminate how black holes influence galaxy evolution, with data processing and delivery taking months before public release.

via Indian Defence Review|

#accretion-disk #black-hole #event-horizon-telescope

space7 months ago•57 min saved

JWST captures sharp image of Circinus black hole’s feeding disk

The James Webb Space Telescope’s interferometric imaging provides the sharpest view yet of Circinus galaxy’s center, revealing that the infrared glow around its supermassive black hole mainly originates from the dusty accretion disk feeding the hole rather than outflows, a finding that sheds light on how such black holes grow and influence their host galaxies.

via Live Science|

#accretion-disk #black-holes #circinus-galaxy

science1 year ago•4 min saved

IXPE's Findings on 'Heartbeat Black Hole' Challenge Existing Theories

NASA's IXPE has measured a high polarization degree in the black hole IGR J17091-3624, challenging existing theories about the behavior of matter near black holes and suggesting the presence of phenomena like matter winds or fast plasma outflows.

via Phys.org|

#accretion-disk #black-hole #ixpe

science1 year ago•4 min saved

Hubble Uncovers Sizzling Secrets of Young Star FU Orionis

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed new insights into FU Orionis, a young star in Orion, showing its accretion disk is hotter and more dynamic than previously thought, with temperatures reaching 16,000 kelvins. This challenges existing theories about young stars and has implications for understanding stellar and planetary formation, as the intense activity could affect the chemical and physical environments of surrounding disks where planets form.

via The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel|

#accretion-disk #fu-orionis #hubble-space-telescope

science1 year ago•2 min saved

New Insights into Black Hole Coronas and Their Cosmic Mysteries

Scientists have, for the first time, observed the shape of a black hole's corona, revealing it to be disk-like rather than spherical, similar to the accretion disk. Using data from NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, researchers studied scattered X-rays from obscured black holes, including Cygnus X-1 and X-3, to detect this pattern. This discovery aids in refining black hole models and understanding their role in active galactic nuclei.

via ScienceAlert|

#accretion-disk #black-holes #corona

astronomy2 years ago•3 min saved

"Dancing Black Holes: Unraveling the Mystery of Galactic Hiccups"

Astronomers have discovered the cause of an unusual burst of light from a supermassive black hole 848 million light-years away, which exhibited periodic energy dips akin to celestial hiccups. They found that the black hole is orbited by a smaller black hole that periodically punches through its accretion disk, releasing plumes of gas. This challenges the traditional understanding of black hole accretion disks and suggests a significant population of similar binary black hole systems in the universe.

via Ars Technica|

#accretion-disk #astronomers #astronomy

astronomy2 years ago•3 min saved

"Surprising Discovery: 2nd Black Hole Found Orbiting 'Hiccupping' Black Hole"

Astronomers have observed a distant supermassive black hole exhibiting periodic "hiccups," which are caused by a smaller black hole orbiting around it and disrupting its accretion disk. This discovery suggests that black hole accretion disks may host a variety of cosmic objects, including other black holes and stars. The researchers anticipate that the immense gravity of the supermassive black hole will eventually merge with its companion black hole. This finding challenges existing knowledge about black hole systems and may lead to the discovery of a new population of extreme binaries.

via Livescience.com|

#accretion-disk #astronomy #astrophysics