Runaway black hole,’ or sneaky galaxy in disguise? Experts are conflicted.

A mysterious streak of stars coursing by means of house like an unlimited, cosmic river has astronomers conflicted. Is it the results of a “renegade” black gap surging by means of house, or is it a bizarrely flat galaxy in disguise? New analysis makes the case for the latter – however the thriller is much from settled.

The cosmic streak was initially detected by NASA’s Hubble Area Telescope and estimated to measure 200,000 light-years lengthy, or about twice the diameter of the Milky Method. Final month, a examine revealed in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (opens in new tab) posited that the streak is likely to be the results of a runaway supermassive black gap plowing by means of a cloud of stellar fuel and dirt roughly 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.

The article’s gravity and velocity, the examine instructed, would have ignited the fuel and left a blazing path of stars in its wake. This thrilling discovery would mark the primary commentary of a rogue supermassive black gap — objects which might be theorized to roam the universe after being ejected from their host galaxy, presumably as a result of collisions with different black holes.

Now, new analysis hints at a extra mundane clarification.

The brand new examine, revealed within the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (opens in new tab), means that the weirdly skinny streak may merely be a flat galaxy considered on its edge, just like the rim of a plate. In contrast to the Milky Method, this supposed galaxy wouldn’t have a bulge of stars at its heart however can be completely flat — a comparatively frequent sort of galaxy known as a skinny or flat galaxy.

To help their interpretation, the examine authors in contrast the celebrities in query to a well known flat galaxy known as IC5249, positioned about 100 million light-years from Earth. They discovered that each the mass and velocity of the celebrities within the two objects lined up.

“They’re terribly comparable,” Mireia Montes (opens in new tab), an astronomer on the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) and co-author of the brand new examine, stated in a assertion (opens in new tab).

Even the examine authors are considerably dissatisfied with this discovering.

“In a single sense, it’s also a pity,” Jorge Sánchez Almeida (opens in new tab), additionally an astronomer at IAC and lead creator of the brand new examine, stated within the assertion. Observing the primary fleeing black gap would have been very thrilling for the scientific neighborhood, he added.

An illustration showing a black hole being ejected from a galaxy's center, as a trail of brightly glowing gas follows behind

An illustration exhibiting a black gap being ejected from a galaxy’s heart, as a path of brightly glowing fuel follows behind (Picture credit score: Keio College)

Hope for the ‘runaway’ black gap

Pieter van Dokkum (opens in new tab), a professor of physics and astronomy at Yale College and lead creator of the preliminary runaway black gap paper, just isn’t satisfied by the brand new interpretation. In a response paper posted April 29 to the preprint server arXiv.org (opens in new tab), van Dokkum famous a number of particulars within the streak observations that conflict with the galaxy speculation.

For one, he wrote, observations of the steak in far-ultraviolet wavelengths present that the stellar stream is straight related to a compact galaxy close by; this helps the concept that the streak was created by a fast-moving object, akin to a supermassive black gap, being ejected from the compact galaxy’s heart. If the streak was truly a flat galaxy, then there needs to be a transparent warmth signature the place the 2 galaxies meet.

Observations additionally present a spectacularly vibrant “knot” of ionized fuel proper the place the forefront of the runaway black gap can be, van Dokkum wrote. This additional helps the black gap principle, however just isn’t accounted for within the edge-on galaxy principle.

The streak can also be unusually giant for a galaxy so removed from Earth, the IAC group admitted within the assertion.

“Whereas there could also be different explanations for the streak, we are able to just about rule out an edge-on galaxy,” van Dokkum informed Stay Science in an e mail.

Regardless of the clarification, this unusual stellar river is a discover that is effectively value persevering with to check. New Hubble observations of the streak coming this summer season “needs to be definitive” on the subject of proving or disproving the galaxy speculation, van Dokkum stated. He added that the mysterious streak was additionally chosen for future observations with the highly effective James Webb Area Telescope, which can search for direct proof of black holes within the space.

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