“This is the first time I’ve seen such a thing.”

Astronomers for the first time have a detailed picture of an active galaxy nucleus, a system of dust and gas covering a vast black hole, one of the brightest objects in the universe.

The brilliance of this nucleus lies at the center of the galaxy NGC1068 – also known as M77. Two centuries after its discovery, astronomers led by Violeta Camus-Rosa of the Dutch University of Leiden revealed its heart in detail in a study released Wednesday. Naturally “.

At 47 million light-years away, M77, located in the Whale’s galaxy, is characterized by galaxies with an active galactic nucleus: a vast black hole, surrounded by millions of solar masses, thick disks of dust and gas. , And its absorption material generates a separate energy.

“The Heart of a Galaxy”

The nucleus contains a whole array of unusual luminous objects: quasars, blazers, and Sefert-type galaxies. Their luminosity reaches several thousand times that of the entire galaxy, from a “small” surface equivalent to our solar system, according to a study by Nature.

“This is the first time we’ve seen such a galaxy, and we’m actually seeing the heart of such a galaxy,” explains Bruno Lopez, the astronomer at the C டிte d’Azur Laboratory, and Matisse, the instrument’s science manager. In order to analyze the light spectrum that made this image possible. Set in the European Southern Laboratory (ESO)’s Largest Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) perched on Mount Chile, Mattis observes infrared radiation in the center of the universe.

With these waves and the accuracy of the instrument, astronomers can now see “how matter is arranged around an active nucleus, how it feeds the black hole, but also with air, and how it organizes itself according to the energy released. It creates stars,” Bruno Lopez continues.

Violeta Gamez-Rosa quoted in the ESO press release that thanks to this image and the accompanying data, the International Astronomical Union “has taken a significant step in understanding the function of active galaxies”.

Plasma jet

The discovery “will help to better understand the history of the Milky Way, and the largest black hole in its core may have been active in the past,” he says. The black hole of the M77, by definition invisible, is surrounded by two disks of gas and dust, which combine when gravitational force absorbs the light disk.

A jet of plasma – ionized particles – from the center of the central springs at each pole gives the appearance of a fully rotating surface. And dust and gas clouds “look like fountains of matter, which are thrown into the flaps of the galaxy,” he said. Lopez explains.

With Matisse, astronomers will now study dust clouds, increasing observations of other active galaxies. Like traces of the Earth’s crust and hydrocarbons, M77 has already been found in large amounts of silicates. This makes them more interesting because carbon is the fourth major component of the universe.

(Essential / AFP)