ESO/Jaffe, Gámez-Rosas et al
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The left panel of this image shows a stunning view of the active galaxy Messier 77. The right panel shows an explosive view of the galaxy’s deepest region, its active galactic core, as seen with the MATISSE instrument on ESO’s VLTI.
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Nationalgeographic.co.id—Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has been observing the clouds cosmic dust in the center galaxy Messier 77 that turned out to be hiding black hole supermassive. The findings have confirmed predictions made about 30 years ago and give astronomers new insight into “active galactic nuclei,” some of the brightest and most mysterious objects in the universe.
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are very energetic sources. It is found at the center of several galaxies. The core is powered by a supermassive black hole. It is these black holes that feed on large amounts of cosmic dust and gas. However, before being eaten, this material spirals towards the black hole and a large amount of energy is released in the process. This often outperforms all the stars in the galaxy.
When astronomers saw this bright AGN object for the first time in the 1950s, they were curious. However, thanks to the existence of the VLTI ESO in operation today, a team of scientists led by Violeta Gámez Rosas from Leiden University in the Netherlands, has carried out an important study to understand how it works and how it looks up close, especially to study the object.
In this study, Rosas and his team made more detailed observations of the center of the galaxy Messier 77, also known as NGC 1068. They detected a thick ring of cosmic dust and gas that apparently hides a supermassive black hole. The results of the study conducted by Rosas and his colleagues have been published in the journal Nature on February 16, 2022 by attaching the title Thermal imaging of dust hiding the black hole in NGC 1068. These findings have provided important evidence to support the 30 year old theory known as the Unified Model of AGNs.
So far, astronomers have known that there are different types of AGN. Some of them release temporary bursts of radio waves, some don’t. There’s even an AGN that shines very brightly in visible light, but unlike the Messier 77, which looks more subdued. Despite that, all AGNs share the same basic structure: a supermassive black hole surrounded by a thick ring of dust, according to the Unified Model created by scientists.
“The true nature of dust clouds and their role in feeding black holes and determining their appearance when viewed from Earth has been a central question in AGN studies over the past three decades,” explains Gámez Rosas. “While there is no single result that will solve all the questions we have, we have taken a big step in understanding how AGN works.” he added.
ESO/Jaffe, Gámez-Rosas et al.
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This image, taken with the MATISSE instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer, shows the deepest region of the active galaxy Messier 77. The core of the active galaxy is a very energetic source powered by a supermassive black hole. By making incredibly detailed observations of the galaxy’s active center, the team of astronomers detected a thick ring of cosmic dust and gas that hides the supermassive black hole. The black dot indicates the black hole’s most likely position, while the two ellipses indicate the extent, visible in the projection, of the thick (dotted) inner dust ring and elongated dust disk.
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ESO/Jaffe, Gámez-Rosas et al.
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ESO’s VLT has captured an extraordinary view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image is true to the galaxy’s beauty, showing its shimmering arms criss-crossed by dust trails.
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Although astronomers have found evidence to support their previous Integrated Model, including seeing dust at the center of Messier 77, doubts remain. They still wonder, can this dust completely hide the black hole, thus explaining why this AGN shines less brightly in visible light than the others?
This observation is also supported by Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment (MATISSE) mounted on ESO’s VLTI, located in Chile’s Atacama Desert. MATISSE combines the infrared light collected by all four 8.2-meter telescopes from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) using a technique called interferometry. The team used MATISSE to scan the center of Messier 77, which lies 47 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus.
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