Astronomers discover mysterious alignment of black holes
Source: Science Daily
Deep radio imaging by researchers in the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape, in South Africa, has revealed that supermassive black holes in a region of the distant universe are all spinning out radio jets in the same direction -- most likely a result of primordial mass fluctuations in the early universe. The astronomers publish their results in a new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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UWC Prof Romeel Dave, SARChI Chair in Cosmology with Multi-Wavelength Data, who leads a team developing plans for universe simulations that could explore the growth of large-scale structure from a theoretical perspective, agrees: "This is not obviously expected based on our current understanding of cosmology. It's a bizarre finding."
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It's a mystery, and it's going to take a while for technology and theory alike to catch up.
Such projects are already in the planning stages; the SKA for example, and its precursor telescopes, the South African MeerKAT array and the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP).
"GMRT is one of the largest and most sensitive radio telescope arrays in the world," notes Prof Taylor, "but we really need MeerKAT to make the very sensitive maps, over a very large area and with great detail, that will be necessary to differentiate between possible explanations. It opens up a whole new research area for these instruments, which will probe as deeply into the and as far back as we can go -- it's going to be an exciting time to be an astronomer."
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Read more: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160411130033.htm
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)redwitch
(14,944 posts)Another planet may be our best bet.
xocet
(3,871 posts)A. R. Taylor(1,2), P. Jagannathan(1,3)
1 Department of Astronomy University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
2 Department of Physic [sic] and Astronomy, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa
3 National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM, USA
Accepted 2016 March 7. Received 2016 March 7; in original form 2015 December 20
ABSTRACT
We present a study of the distribution of radio jet position angles of radio galaxies over an area of 1 square degree in the ELAIS N1 field. ELAIS N1 was observed with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 612 MHz to an rms noise level of 10 ?Jy and angular resolution of 6 arcsec x 5 arcsec. The image contains 65 resolved radio galaxy jets. The spatial distribution reveals a prominent alignment of jet position angles along a "filament" of about 1°. We examine the possibility that the apparent alignment arises from an underlying random distribution and that the probability of chance alignment is less than 0.1%. An angular covariance analysis of the data indicates the presence of spatially coherence in position angles on scales > 0.5°. This angular scales translates to a co-moving scale of > 20 Mpc at a redshift of 1. The implied alignment of the spin axes of massive black holes that give rise the radio jets suggest the presence of large-scale spatial coherence in angular momentum. Our results reinforce prior evidence for large-scale spatial alignments of quasar optical polarisation position angles.
...
https://www.ras.org.uk/images/stories/press/Black_Holes/alignment.pdf
Bayard
(22,100 posts)Doesn't sound very friendly. I would think the magnetic alignment would be the most plausible theory though.
reflection
(6,286 posts)it's a very catchy tune.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Initech
(100,081 posts)Here's a live version from the most recent tour:
Baclava
(12,047 posts)We're living on the wrong side of reality! - it all makes sense now.
Tab
(11,093 posts)No, stars are not "white holes", but from what I understand about black holes is that they induce singularity and eject thhat in another point in space and time. Maybe not stars, but given how we've gotten good at finding black holes, shouldn't we have found at least one "white hole" by now? Iif not, where does the stuff go, or does it just add to the black hole's mass?
freebrew
(1,917 posts)Tab
(11,093 posts)There's plenty of literature that indicates black holes get bigger. Maybe shit goes in and doesn't go out? I dunno.
FWIW, in high school, I did a report on black holes for my science teacher, who was also in charge of the darkroom (remember those?). I blanked out two sheets of paper - just exposed them to the light and ran them through the chemicals - I labeled one "Black Hole" and the other (I think) "Black hole at night".
I got a decent grade on the report (I did do my science) but received the comment that "color photos would be nice". (!)
Since then it's just been an ongoing interest.
SoLeftIAmRight
(4,883 posts)what are they "all pointing" toward
Initech
(100,081 posts)Hey o!!!!!!!!!!
Come on - we were all thinking it!
cstanleytech
(26,297 posts)Zephyrbag
(20 posts)Maybe the concepts of expanding universe, black holes, dark matter, and dark energy, etc. are all wrong. An intriguing alternate view can be found at thunderbolts.info, which explains the electric universe.
StevieM
(10,500 posts)AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)...or more likely, they are just incomplete.
Because the "Electric Universe" is.... never mind....
mhatrw
(10,786 posts)that the current cosmology model is just incomplete.
All I would like scientists to admit is that when it comes to the biggest questions (the origin in the universe, the processes that have driven the universe's matter and energy to organize as they have, and the origin of life), they don't know half of what they pretend to know with half of the certainty that they pretend to know it.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)that they even add up to anything.
The Electric Universe is ridiculous woo.
Now, put down the homeopathy, and go read some Lawrence Krauss.
(Besides, we've been through this dreck before here on DU)
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)You guys are funny.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Uhhhhhh......say what?
Ya...I'm a total dullard.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)And also one needs to consider that pretty much everything can be considered a result of mass fluctuations in the early unsiverse, sort of.
Peace Patriot
(24,010 posts)...against Bernie Sanders?
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)I can see them riding around in little neutron stars.
Blue State Bandit
(2,122 posts)It's called a Berkland Current in which collimated double-layers transfer charged particles (Protons & Electrons) between the 2 bodies. These are visible during active glow mode events in the form of "Jets". but most often are not seen above "radio" when less active in dark mode. Old news for EU.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Kingofalldems
(38,458 posts)still_one
(92,219 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)All kinds of funny things can happen at asymptotic limits, like inversions. So I don't really think we know what's in a black hole, and further when they talk about storage of information in black holes they talk about holographic storage on the boundary, not inside it, and I suspect that's why, they can't really talk about what's inside it. No way to get there.
Personally I think that's where the "minders" live.