Universe observed by the world’s largest radio telescope “Alma”
Two black holes 750 light years apart
Strongly absorbs surrounding substances
Galactic Junction So far, little has been discovered
‘MWC 349A’ located at Cygnus
Confirmed the emission of 500 km per second uphill and downhill
Basis for understanding the principle of massive star formation
▲ The super-large radio telescope ‘ALMA’, where 66 radio telescopes deployed in Chile’s Atacama Desert operate as one.
Courtesy of Alma
Bright, cold winter is a good time to see the stars. The stars are more clearly visible in winter than in other seasons because the atmosphere becomes more transparent as the days get colder and drier. Thanks to the development of science, it is now possible to observe the universe 365 days a year, regardless of the season.
Scientists have discovered two supermassive black holes growing in space relatively close to Earth using ALMA, the world’s largest radio interferometric telescope. ALMA is a system for observing the universe with 66 radio telescopes installed at an altitude of 5,000 m in the Atacama desert in Chile which function like a gigantic telescope. Korea also participates in the research consortium.
A joint research team involving 28 research institutions from 7 countries, led by the Pontifical Catholic University in Chile, the United States Institute of Space Telescope Sciences and the University of Connecticut, has discovered an incredibly large galaxy in a galaxy called “UGC 4211” located in the constellation Cancer, which is only 500 million light years from Earth, announced on the 11th that two black holes were active. The results of this study, which the Korea Astronomical Research Institute also participated in, were published in the Jan. 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, an international academic journal in the field of astrophysics. This research was also presented at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS 241) held in Seattle, United States, until 12. The conference also presented research on the history of astronomy, high-energy astrophysics and experimental astrophysics.
▲ Two supermassive black holes have been discovered in the galaxy UGC 4211 in the constellation Cancer, 500 million light-years from Earth. An imaginary diagram showing two active black holes forming when two galaxies merge.
Courtesy of Alma
The research team used ALMA to discover two black holes in UGC 4211 that are 750 light-years away and are strongly sucking in surrounding matter. The research team said the black holes discovered this time appeared when two galaxies merged, and rarely have cases been found that were actively active at very close distances. According to the research team, the combination of galaxies is very common in the universe, so the binary black hole phenomenon may be more common than expected.
Ezequiel Tracer Pontificia, an astronomy professor at the Catholic University of Korea who led the study, said: “This study allows us to hypothesize that there must be a significant number of pairs of supermassive black holes growing at the center of galaxies.” . become observable, which will allow us to learn more about the origins of the universe and the birth of stars.”
In AAS 241, in addition to this research result, some results obtained using Alma were presented.
Scientists from the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Research Center in the United States observed ‘MWC 349A’ in the constellation Cygnus, 3900 light-years from Earth, with ALMA and managed to observe the emission of enormous ‘jets’ and speed .the day said A black hole or small, newly formed star radiates enormous amounts of energy up and down, called jets.
MWC 349A, the target of this observation, is about 30 times the mass of the sun and is called a “geek star” because it has a unique shape. Previously, MWC 349A was known to emit microwaves, but it was difficult to observe. However, through this observation, it was confirmed that a gas ring is formed around MWC 349A as an ice ring surrounding Saturn, and the diameter of the gas ring is 50 AU (about 7.5 billion km) . The AU, called the ‘astronomical unit’, is used to indicate spatial distance, and the average distance from the Earth to the sun is 1AU (150 million km). Furthermore, it has been confirmed that the ejection speed of the jet reaches 500 km per second. This is the speed you can travel from Seoul to Busan in less than a second.
Qizhou Zhang, a senior research scientist at the Harvard/Smithsonian Astrophysical Research Center who led the research, explained: “The results of this study help us understand the principles and evolution of massive stars.”
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