Supermassive black holes are some of the largest objects in the Universe. Nonetheless, compared to the galaxies at their center, they are actually tiny. However, a new study has found that they affect their shape and orientation in space.
Black holes and galaxies
Supermassive black holes are real monsters that lurk in the centers of galaxies. They can rightfully be considered the most amazing objects in the Universe. A recent study published in Nature Astronomy shows that they are even more incredible than they have seemed so far.
A black hole at the center of a galaxy can reach a mass millions of times that of the sun. Their size may be comparable to the entire solar system. And if an accretion disk of glowing matter is added, they could be even larger.
However, if we compare their size to the star systems they are in, it would appear that they are just tiny.
Orientation in space
In recent years, astronomers have been able to observe quite a few unusually massive black holes in the early Universe. When they absorb a particularly large amount of matter, some of it is shot outward from the poles as relativistic jets. When one of them is pointing toward Earth, we call this phenomenon a quasar.
This gives scientists a more or less accurate idea of how these objects are oriented in space. In the new study, they compared the direction of the relativistic jets of quasars with the rotation axes of their galaxies. Actually, there is nothing obliging them to match, but the study found that they are extremely close.
And this is really very strange, because out of all this, it appears that supermassive black holes are too small to have such a global impact on much larger systems beyond them. But, according to the scientists, that’s exactly what happens in the systems they studied.
This is especially noticeable in elliptical galaxies. These giant cosmic “eggs” are formed when two spiral systems merge. At this point, the system is in complete chaos. And anyway, the smaller axis of these ellipsoids is always directed to the same place where the rays of the quasar in their center.
Provided by phys.org
