Quasar research: simulation

2005/02/10 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Astronomia

It is a mystery. Why do black holes grow only to a size? To do this, astrophysics Tiziana di Mateo and his team from a university in Pittsburgh (USA) have used simulation.

The simulation is based on the quasar, a bright area of great mass, with a black hole in the center, which devours the surrounding stars. For it seems that sometimes quasars attract more gas than they can ingest; part of this gas is absorbed, but the rest is jetted. And over time this process kills the quasar, stopping black holes from growing.

For simulation they have used a supercomputer. And they have taken as base two galaxies that are being touched (in the image is given the sequence of the process from top to bottom). The black holes of these galaxies come together forming a huge black hole, quasar. Quasarra expels gas into space. One day it stops growing and the couple disperses.