Supermassive black hole

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This article is about the astronomical object. For the song by Muse, see Supermassive Black Hole (song).
A gas cloud with several times the mass of the Earth is accelerating towards a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
Top: artist's conception of a supermassive black hole tearing apart a star. Bottom: images believed to show a supermassive black hole devouring a star in galaxy RX J1242-11. Left: X-ray image, Right: optical image.[1]

A supermassive black hole (SMBH) is the largest type of black hole, on the order of hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses. Most—and possibly all—galaxies are inferred to contain a supermassive black hole at their centers.[2][3] In the case of the Milky Way, the SMBH is believed to correspond with the location of Sagittarius A*.[4]

Supermassive black holes have properties which distinguish them from lower-mass classifications. First, the average density of a supermassive black hole (defined as the mass of the black hole divided by the volume within its Schwarzschild radius) can be less than the density of water in the case of some supermassive black holes.[5] This is because the Schwarzschild radius is directly proportional to mass, while density is inversely proportional to the volume. Since the volume of a spherical object (such as the event horizon of a non-rotating black hole) is directly proportional to the cube of the radius, the density of a black hole is inversely proportional to the square of the mass, and thus higher mass black holes have lower average density. Also, the tidal forces in the vicinity of the event horizon are significantly weaker. Since the central singularity is so far away from the horizon, a hypothetical astronaut traveling towards the black hole center would not experience significant tidal force until very deep into the black hole.

Contents

History of research[edit]

Donald Lynden-Bell and Martin Rees hypothesized in 1971 that the center of the Milky Way galaxy would contain a supermassive black hole. Thus, the first thoughts about supermassive black holes related to the center of the Milky Way. Sagittarius A* was discovered and named on February 13 and 15, 1974, by astronomers Bruce Balick and Robert Brown using the baseline interferometer of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.[6] They discovered a radio source that emits synchrotron radiation; also it was found to be dense and immobile because of its gravitation. Therefore, the first discovered supermassive black hole exists in the center of the Milky Way.

Formation[edit]

An artist's conception of a supermassive black hole and accretion disk.

The origin of supermassive black holes remains an open field of research. Astrophysicists agree that once a black hole is in place in the center of a galaxy, it can grow by accretion of matter and by merging with other black holes. There are, however, several hypotheses for the formation mechanisms and initial masses of the progenitors, or "seeds", of supermassive black holes. The most obvious hypothesis is that the seeds are black holes of tens or perhaps hundreds of solar masses that are left behind by the explosions of massive stars and grow by accretion of matter. Another model involves a large gas cloud in the period before the first stars formed collapsing into a “quasi-star” and then a black hole of initially only around ~20 solar masses, and then rapidly accreting to become relatively quickly an intermediate-mass black hole, and possibly a SMBH if the accretion-rate is not quenched at higher masses.[7] The initial “quasi-star” would become unstable to radial perturbations because of electron-positron pair production in its core, and may collapse directly into a black hole without a supernova explosion, which would eject most of its mass and prevent it from leaving a black hole as a remnant. Yet another model[8] involves a dense stellar cluster undergoing core-collapse as the negative heat capacity of the system drives the velocity dispersion in the core to relativistic speeds. Finally, primordial black holes may have been produced directly from external pressure in the first moments after the Big Bang. Formation of black holes from the deaths of the first stars has been extensively studied and corroborated by observations. The other models for black hole formation listed above are theoretical.

Artist’s impression of the huge outflow ejected from the quasar SDSS J1106+1939.[9]

The difficulty in forming a supermassive black hole resides in the need for enough matter to be in a small enough volume. This matter needs to have very little angular momentum in order for this to happen. Normally, the process of accretion involves transporting a large initial endowment of angular momentum outwards, and this appears to be the limiting factor in black hole growth. This is a major component of the theory of accretion disks. Gas accretion is the most efficient, and also the most conspicuous, way in which black holes grow. The majority of the mass growth of supermassive black holes is thought to occur through episodes of rapid gas accretion, which are observable as active galactic nuclei or quasars. Observations reveal that quasars were much more frequent when the Universe was younger, indicating that supermassive black holes formed and grew early. A major constraining factor for theories of supermassive black hole formation is the observation of distant luminous quasars, which indicate that supermassive black holes of billions of solar masses had already formed when the Universe was less than one billion years old. This suggests that supermassive black holes arose very early in the Universe, inside the first massive galaxies.

Currently, there appears to be a gap in the observed mass distribution of black holes. There are stellar-mass black holes, generated from collapsing stars, which range up to perhaps 33 solar masses. The minimal supermassive black hole is in the range of a hundred thousand solar masses. Between these regimes there appears to be a dearth of intermediate-mass black holes. Such a gap would suggest qualitatively different formation processes. However, some models[10] suggest that ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) may be black holes from this missing group.

Doppler measurements[edit]

Direct Doppler measures of water masers surrounding the nuclei of nearby galaxies have revealed a very fast Keplerian motion, only possible with a high concentration of matter in the center. Currently, the only known objects that can pack enough matter in such a small space are black holes, or things that will evolve into black holes within astrophysically short timescales. For active galaxies farther away, the width of broad spectral lines can be used to probe the gas orbiting near the event horizon. The technique of reverberation mapping uses variability of these lines to measure the mass and perhaps the spin of the black hole that powers the active galaxy's "engine".

Such supermassive black holes in the center of many galaxies are thought to be the "engine" of active objects such as Seyfert galaxies and quasars.

Milky Way galactic center black hole[edit]

Inferred orbits of 6 stars around supermassive black hole candidate Sagittarius A* at the Milky Way galactic centre.[11]

Astronomers are confident that our own Milky Way galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center, 26,000 light-years from the Solar System, in a region called Sagittarius A*[12] because:

  • The star S2 follows an elliptical orbit with a period of 15.2 years and a pericenter (closest distance) of 17 light hours (1.8×1013 m or 120 AU) from the center of the central object.[13]
  • From the motion of star S2, the object's mass can be estimated as 4.1 million solar masses,[14][15] or about 8.2 × 1036 kg.
  • The radius of the central object must be significantly less than 17 light hours, because otherwise, S2 would either collide with it or be ripped apart by tidal forces. In fact, recent observations[16] indicate that the radius is no more than 6.25 light-hours, about the diameter of Uranus' orbit.
  • Only a black hole is dense enough to contain 4.1 million solar masses in this volume of space.

The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and UCLA Galactic Center Group[17] have provided the strongest evidence to date that Sagittarius A* is the site of a supermassive black hole,[12] based on data from ESO's Very Large Telescope[18] and the Keck telescope.[19]

Supermassive black holes outside the Milky Way[edit]

It is now widely accepted that the center of nearly every galaxy contains a supermassive black hole.[20][21] The close observational correlation between the mass of this hole and the velocity dispersion of the host galaxy's bulge, known as the M-sigma relation,[22] strongly suggests a connection between the formation of the black hole and the galaxy itself.[20]

The explanation for this correlation remains an unsolved problem in astrophysics. The unknown nature of dark matter is a crucial variable in these models.[23][24]

The nearby Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light-years away, contains a (1.1–2.3) × 108 (110-230 million) solar mass central black hole, significantly larger than the Milky Way's.[25] The largest supermassive black hole in the Milky Way's neighborhood appears to be that of M87, weighing in at (6.4 ± 0.5) × 109 (~6.4 billion) solar masses at a distance of 53.5 million light years.[26][27] On 5 December 2011 astronomers discovered the largest super massive black hole yet found to be that of NGC 4889, weighing in at 21 billion solar masses at a distance of 336 million light-years away in the Coma constellation.[28]

Some galaxies, such as Galaxy 0402+379, appear to have two supermassive black holes at their centers, forming a binary system. If they collided, the event would create strong gravitational waves.[29] Binary supermassive black holes are believed to be a common consequence of galactic mergers.[30] The binary pair in OJ 287, 3.5 billion light years away, contains the previous most massive black hole known (until the December 2011 discovery [31]), with a mass estimated at 18 billion solar masses.[32] A supermassive black hole was recently discovered in the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10, which has no bulge. The precise implications for this discovery on black hole formation are unknown, but may indicate that black holes formed before bulges.[33]

On March 28, 2011, a supermassive black hole was seen tearing a mid-size star apart.[34] That is, according to astronomers, the only likely explanation of the observations that day of sudden X-ray radiation and the follow-up broad-band observations.[35][36] The source was previously an inactive galactic nucleus, and from study of the outburst the galactic nucleus is estimated to be a SMBH with mass of the order of a million solar masses. This rare event is assumed to be a relativistic outflow (material being emitted in a jet at a significant fraction of the speed of light) from a star tidally disrupted by the SMBH. A significant fraction of a solar mass of material is expected to have accreted onto the SMBH. Subsequent long-term observation will allow this assumption to be confirmed if the emission from the jet decays at the expected rate for mass accretion onto a SMBH.

As reported in Nature of 28 November 2012, astronomers have used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope to measure the mass of an extraordinarily large black hole (with mass approximates 17 billion Suns), possibly one of the largest black holes found so far. It has been found in the compact, lenticular galaxy NGC 1277, lies 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus. The black hole has approximately 59 percent of the mass of the bulge of this spiral galaxy (14 percent of the total stellar mass of the galaxy).[37][38]

Supermassive black holes in fiction[edit]

Main article: Black holes in fiction

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Chandra :: Photo Album :: RX J1242-11 :: 18 Feb 04
  2. ^ Antonucci, R. (1993). "Unified Models for Active Galactic Nuclei and Quasars". Annual Reviews in Astronomy and Astrophysics 31 (1): 473–521. Bibcode:1993ARA&A..31..473A. doi:10.1146/annurev.aa.31.090193.002353. 
  3. ^ Urry, C.; Padovani, P. (1995). "Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 107: 803–845. arXiv:astro-ph/9506063. Bibcode:1995PASP..107..803U. doi:10.1086/133630. 
  4. ^ Schödel, R.; et al. (2002). "A star in a 15.2-year orbit around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way". Nature 419 (6908): 694–696. arXiv:astro-ph/0210426. Bibcode:2002Natur.419..694S. doi:10.1038/nature01121. PMID 12384690. 
  5. ^ Celotti, A.; Miller, J.C.; Sciama, D.W. (1999). "Astrophysical evidence for the existence of black holes". Class. Quant. Grav. 16 (12A): A3–A21. arXiv:astro-ph/9912186. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/16/12A/301. 
  6. ^ Melia 2007, p. 2
  7. ^ Begelman, M. C.; et al. (Jun 2006). "Formation of supermassive black holes by direct collapse in pre-galactic haloed". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 370 (1): 289–298. arXiv:astro-ph/0602363. Bibcode:2006MNRAS.370..289B. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10467.x. 
  8. ^ Spitzer, L. (1987). Dynamical Evolution of Globular Clusters. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08309-6. 
  9. ^ "Biggest Black Hole Blast Discovered". ESO Press Release. Retrieved 28 November 2012. 
  10. ^ Winter, L.M.; et al. (Oct 2006). "XMM-Newton Archival Study of the ULX Population in Nearby Galaxies". Astrophysical Journal 649 (2): 730–752. arXiv:astro-ph/0512480. Bibcode:2006ApJ...649..730W. doi:10.1086/506579. 
  11. ^ "SINFONI in the Galactic Center: Young Stars and Infrared Flares in the Central Light-Month" by Eisenhauer et al, The Astrophysical Journal, 628:246-259, 2005
  12. ^ a b Henderson, Mark (December 9, 2008). "Astronomers confirm black hole at the heart of the Milky Way". London: Times Online. Retrieved 2009-05-17. 
  13. ^ Schödel, R.; et. al. (17 October 2002). "A star in a 15.2-year orbit around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way". Nature 419 (6908): 694–696. arXiv:astro-ph/0210426. Bibcode:2002Natur.419..694S. doi:10.1038/nature01121. PMID 12384690. 
  14. ^ Ghez, A. M.; et al. (December 2008). "Measuring Distance and Properties of the Milky Way's Central Supermassive Black Hole with Stellar Orbits". Astrophysical Journal 689 (2): 1044–1062. arXiv:astro-ph/0808.2870. Bibcode:2008ApJ...689.1044G. doi:10.1086/592738. 
  15. ^ Milky Way's Central Monster Measured
  16. ^ Ghez, A. M.; Salim, S.; Hornstein, S. D.; Tanner, A.; Lu, J. R.; Morris, M.; Becklin, E. E.; Duchêne, G. (May 2005). "Stellar Orbits around the Galactic Center Black Hole". The Astrophysical Journal 620 (2): 744–757. arXiv:astro-ph/0306130. Bibcode:2005ApJ...620..744G. doi:10.1086/427175. 
  17. ^ UCLA Galactic Center Group
  18. ^ ESO - 2002
  19. ^ http://www.keckobservatory.org/news/old_pages/andreaghez.html
  20. ^ a b King, Andrew (2003-09-15). "Black Holes, Galaxy Formation, and the MBH-σ Relation". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 596: L27–L29. arXiv:astro-ph/0308342. Bibcode:2003ApJ...596L..27K. doi:10.1086/379143. 
  21. ^ Richstone, D. et al. (January 13, 1997). "Massive Black Holes Dwell in Most Galaxies, According to Hubble Census". 189th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 2009-05-17. 
  22. ^ Merritt, D.; Ferrarese, Laura (2001-01-15). "The MBH-σ Relation for Supermassive Black Holes". The Astrophysical Journal (The American Astronomical Society.) 547 (1): 547:140–145. arXiv:astro-ph/0008310. Bibcode:2001ApJ...547..140M. doi:10.1086/318372. 
  23. ^ Robert Roy Britt (2003-07-29). "The New History of Black Holes: 'Co-evolution' Dramatically Alters Dark Reputation". 
  24. ^ "Astronomers crack cosmic chicken-or-egg dilemma". 2003-07-22. 
  25. ^ Bender, Ralf; et al. (2005-09-20). "HST STIS Spectroscopy of the Triple Nucleus of M31: Two Nested Disks in Keplerian Rotation around a Supermassive Black Hole". The Astrophysical Journal 631 (1): 280–300. arXiv:astro-ph/0509839. Bibcode:2005ApJ...631..280B. doi:10.1086/432434. 
  26. ^ Gebhardt, Karl; Thomas, Jens (August 2009). "The Black Hole Mass, Stellar Mass-to-Light Ratio, and Dark Halo in M87". The Astrophysical Journal 700 (2): 1690–1701. arXiv:0906.1492. Bibcode:2009ApJ...700.1690G. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/700/2/1690. 
  27. ^ Macchetto, F.; Marconi, A.; Axon, D. J.; Capetti, A.; Sparks, W.; Crane, P. (November 1997). "The Supermassive Black Hole of M87 and the Kinematics of Its Associated Gaseous Disk". Astrophysical Journal 489 (2): 579. arXiv:astro-ph/9706252. Bibcode:1997ApJ...489..579M. doi:10.1086/304823. 
  28. ^ Overbye, Dennis (2011-12-05). "Astronomers Find Biggest Black Holes Yet". The New York Times. 
  29. ^ Major, Jason. "Watch what happens when two supermassive black holes collide". Universe today. Retrieved 4 June 2013. 
  30. ^ D. Merritt and M. Milosavljevic (2005). "Massive Black Hole Binary Evolution." http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/lrr-2005-8/
  31. ^ Two most massive black holes as of December 2011
  32. ^ Shiga, David (10 January 2008). "Biggest black hole in the cosmos discovered". NewScientist.com news service. 
  33. ^ Kaufman, Rachel (10 January 2011). "Huge Black Hole Found in Dwarf Galaxy". National Geographic. Retrieved 1 June 2011. 
  34. ^ "Astronomers catch first glimpse of star being consumed by black hole". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2011-08-26. 
  35. ^ Burrows, D. N.; Kennea, J. A.; Ghisellini, G.; Mangano, V.; et al (Aug 2011). "Relativistic jet activity from the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole". Nature 476 (7361): 421–424. arXiv:1104.4787. Bibcode:2011Natur.476..421B. doi:10.1038/nature10374. 
  36. ^ Zauderer, B. A.; Berger, E.; Soderberg, A. M.; Loeb, A.; et al (Aug 2011). "Birth of a relativistic outflow in the unusual γ-ray transient Swift J164449.3+573451". Nature 476 (7361): 425–428. arXiv:1106.3568. Bibcode:2011Natur.476..425Z. doi:10.1038/nature10366. 
  37. ^ Ron Cowen, Small galaxy harbours super-hefty black hole, Nature News, 28 November 2012
  38. ^ Remco C. E. van den Bosch, Karl Gebhardt, Kayhan Gültekin, Glenn van de Ven, Arjen van der Wel, Jonelle L. Walsh, An over-massive black hole in the compact lenticular galaxy NGC 1277, Nature 491, pp. 729–731 (29 November 2012) doi:10.1038/nature11592, published online 28 November 2012

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]
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