Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Astronomy Cast Ep. 213

Supermassive Black Holes

Black holes are still very much a mystery to scientists and astronomers.  However, we have learned an incredible amount about them in the recent decades.  Astronomers now believe that there is a huge black hole in the center of every galaxy.  These black holes are thought to be able to contain hundreds of billions of times the mass of our Sun! It is difficult to even imagine such massiveness!  They have event horizons that are bigger than our Solar System! Here, in these black holes, are the most energetic particles in the Universe.  There are also the brightest objects in the Universe.  But the most incredible and most confusing thing about black holes, is that the laws of physics are completely mangled in them.  Because no light escapes black holes, astronomers must detect the active ones indirectly.  The Spitzer telescope uses infrared rays to find the actively "eating" black holes.  Optical and X-ray telescopes have been unable to view the holes.

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