Tumultuous galaxy mergers better at switching on black holes
June 6, 2018, University of Colorado at Boulder
A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder finds that violent crashes may be more effective at activating black holes than more peaceful mergers.
When two galaxies collide, the supermassive black holes that sit at their centers also smash together. But before they do, these galaxies often flicker on, absorbing huge quantities of gas and dust and producing a bright display called an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN).
But not all mergers are created equal. In some such marriages, only one black hole becomes active, while in others, both do.
The research team led by CU Boulder's Scott Barrows discovered that single activations seem to occur more often in mergers in which the galaxies are mismatched—or when one galaxy is huge and the other puny.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-06-tumultuous-galaxy-mergers-black-holes.html#jCp
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