Universe observed by the world’s largest radio telescope ‘Alma’
Two black holes 750 light years apart
Strongly absorbs surrounding substances
Galactic Junction So far, little has been discovered
‘MWC 349A’ located in Cygnus
500 km per second up and down emission confirmed
Basis for understanding the principle of massive star formation
▲ The super-large radio telescope ‘ALMA’, where 66 radio telescopes deployed in the Atacama Desert in Chile operate as one.
Courtesy of Alma
The bright and cold winter is a good time to see the stars. The stars are more clearly visible in winter than in other seasons because the atmosphere becomes more transparent as the days get colder and drier. Thanks to the development of science, it is now possible to observe the universe 365 days a year, regardless of the season.
Scientists have discovered two supermassive black holes growing in space relatively close to Earth using ALMA, the world’s largest radio interferometer telescope. Alma is a system for observing the universe with 66 radio telescopes installed at an altitude of 5,000m in the Atacama Desert in Chile operating like one giant telescope. Korea is also participating in the research consortium.
A joint research team involving 28 research institutes from 7 countries, led by the Catholic University of Pontificia in Chile, the U.S. Space Telescope Science Institute, and the University of Connecticut, has discovered an incredibly large galaxy in a galaxy called ‘UGC 4211’ located in the constellation of Cancer, which is only 500 million light years away from Earth. It announced on the 11th that two black holes were found to be active. The results of this study, in which the Korea Astronomical Research Institute also participated, were published in the January 10th issue of ‘The Astrophysical Journal Letters’, an international academic journal in the field of astrophysics. This research was also presented at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS 241) held in Seattle, the United States until the 12th. Researches on the history of astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, and experimental astrophysics were also presented at the conference.
▲ Two supermassive black holes were discovered in the UGC 4211 galaxy in the constellation of Cancer, 500 million light-years away from Earth. An imaginary diagram showing two active black holes being formed as two galaxies merge.
Courtesy of Alma
The research team used Alma to discover two black holes in UGC 4211 that are 750 light-years away and are strongly sucking in surrounding matter. The research team said that the black holes discovered this time appeared when two galaxies merged, and cases that were actively active at very close distances were rarely found. According to the research team, the combination of galaxies is very common in the universe, so the binary black hole phenomenon may be more common than expected.
Ezequiel Tracer Pontificia, a professor of astronomy at the Catholic University of Korea who led the study, said, “This study allows us to speculate that there must be a significant number of supermassive black hole pairs growing in the center of galaxies. “It will become observable, which will allow us to learn more about the origins of the universe and the birth of stars.”
In AAS 241, in addition to this research result, a number of achievements using Alma were presented.
▲ A virtual diagram showing a jet phenomenon in which energy is emitted up and down at a speed of 500 km/sec from MWC 349A, the ‘geek star’ located in the constellation Cygnus.
Provided by the European Southern Observatory
Scientists at the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Research Center in the U.S. observed ‘MWC 349A’ in the constellation Cygnus, 3900 light-years away from Earth, with Alma and succeeded in observing the emission of ‘jets’ of enormous size and speed. the day said A black hole or a newly formed baby star radiates huge amounts of energy up and down, called jets.
MWC 349A, the target of this observation, is about 30 times the mass of the sun and is called a ‘geek star’ because it has a unique shape. Previously, MWC 349A was known to emit microwaves, but it was difficult to observe. However, through this observation, it was confirmed that a gas ring is formed around MWC 349A like an ice ring surrounding Saturn, and the diameter of the gas ring is 50 AU (about 7.5 billion km). The AU, called the ‘astronomical unit’, is used to indicate space distance, and the average distance from the Earth to the sun is 1AU (150 million km). In addition, the jet ejection speed was confirmed to reach 500 km per second. This is the speed at which you can travel from Seoul to Busan in less than one second.
Qizhou Zhang, a senior researcher at the Harvard/Smithsonian Astrophysical Research Center who led the research, explained, “The results of this study help us understand the principles and evolution of massive stars.”
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