Webb spots aftermath of collision of two galaxies
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Using the Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the collision of two spiral galaxies that appears to have caused a supermassive black hole to collapse in its wake.
The Webb false-color infrared image to the right shows the two galaxies as the red dots, both surrounded by a ring, with the supermassive black hole the bluish spot in between but offset somewhat to the left. Follow-up radio observations suggested that this bluish spot was a supermassive black hole, having a mass of a million suns and sucking up matter from the giant gas cloud that surrounds it.
The team proposes that the black hole formed there via the direct collapse of a gas cloud – a process that may explain some of the incredibly massive black holes Webb has found in the early universe.
This hypothesis however has enormous uncertainties, and requires a lot more observations to confirm. The black hole could simply exist unrelated to the galaxy collision, having come there from elsewhere. Or it could be from a third galaxy in this group that these initial observations have not yet detected.
The image however is quite cool.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for source.
Using the Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the collision of two spiral galaxies that appears to have caused a supermassive black hole to collapse in its wake.
The Webb false-color infrared image to the right shows the two galaxies as the red dots, both surrounded by a ring, with the supermassive black hole the bluish spot in between but offset somewhat to the left. Follow-up radio observations suggested that this bluish spot was a supermassive black hole, having a mass of a million suns and sucking up matter from the giant gas cloud that surrounds it.
The team proposes that the black hole formed there via the direct collapse of a gas cloud – a process that may explain some of the incredibly massive black holes Webb has found in the early universe.
This hypothesis however has enormous uncertainties, and requires a lot more observations to confirm. The black hole could simply exist unrelated to the galaxy collision, having come there from elsewhere. Or it could be from a third galaxy in this group that these initial observations have not yet detected.
The image however is quite cool.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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