Scientists discover an "invisible monster fleeing in space"

Scientists discover an "invisible monster fleeing in space"  A team of astronomers has announced the existence of an "invisible monster on the loose", in the form of a "runaway" supermassive black hole speeding through the universe, unlike anything they've seen before.  And the supermassive black hole is flowing through the universe so fast that if it were in our solar system, it could travel the 237,674-mile journey from Earth to the Moon in just 14 minutes.  Weighing as much as 20 million suns, it left behind a chain of stars measuring 200,000 light-years across, twice the diameter of the Milky Way.  Scientists identified the possible black hole findings in a Yale University study. Lead author of the study Professor Peter van Dokkum said: "We think we are witnessing wakefulness behind the black hole as the gas cools and is able to form stars. Therefore, we are looking at the formation of stars that follow the black hole."  And despite black holes' reputation as destructive consumers of light and matter, the strangely fast black hole was spotted by NASA's telescope colliding with gas in front of it and sparking new star formation in its wake. The scientists, whose research was published in The Astrophysics Journal Letters, believe that the gas is likely being shocked and heated by either the rapid motion of the black hole or the higher radiation coming from the accretion disk, which is made up of spinning particles that flow around the black hole. The black hole, located 7.5 billion light-years from Earth, drains gas in front of it, leading to star formation.  Scientists said they had never seen anything like this phenomenon, which was captured by chance by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.  Hubble images show that the black hole is at one end of a pillar extending into its parent galaxy.  The outer end of this plume contains a "notably bright knot of ionized oxygen," which scientists suggest may be the result of heat from the motion of the black hole.  Professor van Dokkum added: "The gas in front of it is being shocked by this supersonic effect and the high speed of the black hole moving through the gas. How exactly it works is really unknown."  The scientist found the black hole while scanning images on NASA's Hubble Telescope in search of globular star clusters in a nearby galaxy.  He explained, "I was just scanning through the Hubble image and then I noticed we had a little line. I immediately thought it was a cosmic ray hitting the camera detector and causing a line imaging artifact. When we removed the cosmic rays we realized they were still there. It didn't look like Nothing we've seen before."  Scientists believe that the runaway black hole escaped after two galaxies merged about 50 million years ago, gathering supermassive black holes at their centers.  Then, when a third galaxy came along with its own black hole, the three galaxies mixed, resulting in a "messy and unstable formation".  It is possible that one of the black holes stole momentum from the other two and was ejected from its host galaxy.


A team of astronomers has announced the existence of an "invisible monster on the loose", in the form of a "runaway" supermassive black hole speeding through the universe, unlike anything they've seen before.

And the supermassive black hole is flowing through the universe so fast that if it were in our solar system, it could travel the 237,674-mile journey from Earth to the Moon in just 14 minutes.

Weighing as much as 20 million suns, it left behind a chain of stars measuring 200,000 light-years across, twice the diameter of the Milky Way.

Scientists identified the possible black hole findings in a Yale University study. Lead author of the study Professor Peter van Dokkum said: "We think we are witnessing wakefulness behind the black hole as the gas cools and is able to form stars. Therefore, we are looking at the formation of stars that follow the black hole."

And despite black holes' reputation as destructive consumers of light and matter, the strangely fast black hole was spotted by NASA's telescope colliding with gas in front of it and sparking new star formation in its wake.
The scientists, whose research was published in The Astrophysics Journal Letters, believe that the gas is likely being shocked and heated by either the rapid motion of the black hole or the higher radiation coming from the accretion disk, which is made up of spinning particles that flow around the black hole. The black hole, located 7.5 billion light-years from Earth, drains gas in front of it, leading to star formation.

Scientists said they had never seen anything like this phenomenon, which was captured by chance by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble images show that the black hole is at one end of a pillar extending into its parent galaxy.

The outer end of this plume contains a "notably bright knot of ionized oxygen," which scientists suggest may be the result of heat from the motion of the black hole.

Professor van Dokkum added: "The gas in front of it is being shocked by this supersonic effect and the high speed of the black hole moving through the gas. How exactly it works is really unknown."

The scientist found the black hole while scanning images on NASA's Hubble Telescope in search of globular star clusters in a nearby galaxy.

He explained, "I was just scanning through the Hubble image and then I noticed we had a little line. I immediately thought it was a cosmic ray hitting the camera detector and causing a line imaging artifact. When we removed the cosmic rays we realized they were still there. It didn't look like Nothing we've seen before."

Scientists believe that the runaway black hole escaped after two galaxies merged about 50 million years ago, gathering supermassive black holes at their centers.

Then, when a third galaxy came along with its own black hole, the three galaxies mixed, resulting in a "messy and unstable formation".

It is possible that one of the black holes stole momentum from the other two and was ejected from its host galaxy.

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