Ravenous black hole enjoys star-studded banquet
The inexorable spiral of matter down the gullet of a giant black hole has been captured in unprecedented detail by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
NGC 1097, a spiral galaxy about 45 million light years from Earth, glows relatively brightly at its centre in visible and X-ray wavelengths. That suggests a black hole is devouring surrounding gas and dust there, but the glare from nearby stars has overwhelmed any detailed images of the process.
Now, astronomers have used one of the VLT's four 8-metre telescopes to take near-infrared images of matter whirling towards the galaxy's heart.
"This is possibly the first time that a detailed view of the channelling process of matter, from the main part of the galaxy down to the very end in the nucleus, is released," says Almudena Prieto, at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and lead author of the study.
"we take our fill, take our fill, take our fill..."
The inexorable spiral of matter down the gullet of a giant black hole has been captured in unprecedented detail by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
NGC 1097, a spiral galaxy about 45 million light years from Earth, glows relatively brightly at its centre in visible and X-ray wavelengths. That suggests a black hole is devouring surrounding gas and dust there, but the glare from nearby stars has overwhelmed any detailed images of the process.
Now, astronomers have used one of the VLT's four 8-metre telescopes to take near-infrared images of matter whirling towards the galaxy's heart.
"This is possibly the first time that a detailed view of the channelling process of matter, from the main part of the galaxy down to the very end in the nucleus, is released," says Almudena Prieto, at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and lead author of the study.
"we take our fill, take our fill, take our fill..."