Are black holes quiet eaters? NASA decodes elements that satiate the cosmic giants

NASA's retired Spitzer Space Telescope captured images of streams of dust, which are thousands of light-years long, moving towards the supermassive black holewhich is presentat the centre of the Andromeda galaxy.

This observation has now helped scientists understand how black holes, which are billions of times the mass of our sun, are able to satiate their hunger while remaining "quiet" eaters.

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When supermassive black holes consume gas and dust, the temperature of the material rises just before it falls into the cosmic abyss and creates sparkling lights, some of which are even brighterin comparison toan entire galaxyfullof stars.

Once the cosmic elementsare consumedin clumps of different sizes, the black hole's brightness fluctuates.

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However, the black holeswhich areat the centre of Andromeda (one of our nearest galacticneighbours) and Milky Way (Earth's home galaxy) have emerged as the quietest eaters present in the universe.

The light emitted by them does not vary significantly in theparameters of brightnesswhichsuggeststhat they have been consuming a small but steady flow of food and not eating large clumps.

Theblack hole is approached by the streamslittle by little and in a spiral shape.

What is the food source for black holes in Andromeda galaxy?

According to a studypublishedinThe Astrophysical Journal, the theory of a supermassive black hole feeding on a steady stream of gaswas appliedwhile looking into the Andromeda galaxy.

With the use ofcomputer models, the authors simulated how the behaviour of gas and dust will alter ifitisbroughtin proximity with Andromeda's supermassive black hole.

In the simulated condition, itis demonstratedthat a small disk of hot gas is likely to be formed closely to the supermassive black hole and continuously feed it.

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The disk can be replenished and maintained through various streams of gas and dust.The researchers also found that those streams will have to stay in a particular size and flow rateorelsethe cosmic material will start falling in irregular clumps inside the black holeand leadto more light fluctuation.

Looking at the findings of NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescope, the scientists agreed that the spirals have been satiating the supermassive black hole of Andromeda galaxy.

The study's co-author and astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and the University Observatory Munich Almudena Prieto said, "This is a great example of scientists reexamining archival data to reveal more about galaxy dynamics by comparing it to the latest computer simulations."

"We have 20-year-old data telling us things we didn't recognise in it when we first collected it," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)