Astronomers See Disks Surrounding Black Holes, Strengthened Evidence For Current Explanation Of Quasars

July 24, 2008

For the first time, a team of international researchers has found a way to view the accretion disks surrounding black holes and verify that their true electromagnetic spectra match what astronomers have long predicted they would be.

A polarizing filter attached to a telescope suppresses the light emitted by dust particles and ionized gas clouds around the quasar
so its true electromagnetic spectrum can be revealed.
(Credit: Makoto Kishimoto, with cloud image by Schartmann)

A black hole and its bright accretion disk have been thought to form a quasar, the powerful light source at the center of some distant galaxies. Using a polarizing filter, the research team, which included Robert Antonucci and Omer Blaes, professors of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, isolated the light emitted by the accretion disk from that produced by other matter in the vicinity of the black hole.

"This work has greatly strengthened the evidence for the accepted explanation of quasars," said Antonucci.

Quasars are the brilliant cores of remote galaxies, at the hearts of which lie supermassive black holes that can generate enough power to outshine the Sun a trillion times. These mighty power sources are fuelled by interstellar gas, thought to be sucked into the hole from a surrounding ‘accretion disc’. New research verifies a long-standing prediction about the intensely luminous radiation emitted by these accretion discs.

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Posted in Science and Technology, Space Exploration