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Questions tagged [supermassive-black-hole]

Questions regarding the most massive examples of black holes that typically reside at the centers of galaxies.

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If a pulsar was half inside a supermassive black hole and half outside, would it bulge on the outside?

Clocks spin slower in stronger gravity. The half of a pulsar inside the black hole would presumably spin slower relative to an observer on the outside.Does this mean that matter on the outside ...
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2 votes
1 answer
171 views

What difference does it make to a Galaxy if the central black hole spins at an angle to the galactic plane?

There is an interesting article here about Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way: Sagittarius A It has an accretion disc that is inclined to the galactic plane and may have ...
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1 vote
0 answers
105 views

Can self interacting dark matter explain the final parsec problem?

Computer simulations suggest that supermassive black holes cannot merge because when they are 3.26 light years apart ( one parsec) there is insufficient gas or dust nearby to slow the black holes ...
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2 votes
1 answer
362 views

What is the best catalog of black hole candidates?

I posted this questions in Physics stack: "I am searching for a catalog, list, database, etc. That should show astronomical observations of known black hole candidates. I am primarily interested ...
tau1777's user avatar
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Is the hypothetical '(Don) Page curve' of evaporating black holes equal in time, so to speak, on both sides of the curve?

I have heard that Hawking radiation is slow at first, but rapidly increases when the black hole becomes much smaller... (I forget the formula...) Does that mean that the second half of Page's curve, ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
452 views

How bright in the night sky would J0529-4351 (brightest quasar ever found) be if it were in our galaxy?

According to this article, the quasar (black hole) named J0529-4351 is the most luminous object in the known universe, being: 500 trillion times more luminous than the Sun To put it in terms easier ...
Ahmed Tawfik's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
815 views

How can Kerr black holes have a 'speed limit' to how fast they can spin?

Obviously, the speed of light is a presumed limit, at least for 'physical' objects moving 'within' ('through'?) spacetime, but... In recent news some scientists believe they have figured out the ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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5 votes
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What is a "Gentle Giant" Black Hole?

I have seen articles about the Milky Way's "gentle giant" black hole. For example: https://nypost.com/2022/05/12/image-of-gentle-giant-black-hole-at-milky-ways-center/ https://www.reuters....
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1 vote
1 answer
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ER=EPR and information fuelling cosmic expansion

I apologize in advance for the lack of education, I'm a Canadian hillbilly. I was considering the concepts of ER=EPR and the growth of the black hole's internal system with the addition of information ...
ChristainJP's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
195 views

Is it possible to detect gravitational lensing of both light and gravitational waves originating from the same event?

Is it theoretically possible to detect gravitational lensing of both light and gravitational waves, when both originate from the same source/event (merger of two stellar black holes or merger of two ...
Alex's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
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Could the revolution of super-massive black holes around each other create a pulsar-array gravitational wave signal despite 'final parsec' problem?

Some commentators on the recently-observed very-long-wavelength gravitational wave signal involving pulsars, like Dr. Becky Smethurst, have implied that it might not be merging supermassive black ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
255 views

Could macroscopic primordial black holes have created metals shortly after the big bang?

After seeing articles about the JWST like these two: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/02/astronomers-discover-metal-rich-galaxies-early-universe https://www.livescience.com/james-webb-space-...
Nathan Stanton's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the mechanism through which mass is converted to thermal energy in the accretion disc of a black hole?

In the book The Cosmic Perspective, it is stated that as matter is falling into a supermassive black hole, up to $40\%$ of its mass are converted to thermal energy, making the accretion of matter ...
Vercassivelaunos's user avatar
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1 answer
169 views

If black holes contain dark energy would the expansion of the universe be uniform?

Because black holes are different sizes presumably they would contain different quantities of dark energy and so some galaxies would accelerate faster in some directions than others. Dark energy from ...
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2 votes
1 answer
518 views

Did the Grus star get expelled from the Milky way because it was accelerated by the Sagittarius A black hole?

On Wikipedia there is an article that says a star may have been expelled from the Milky Way because it interacted with Sagittarius A. Sagittarius A* from Wikipedia: In July 2019, astronomers reported ...
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1 vote
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Does the (relative) distance of the photon sphere from the center of a black hole vary according its mass?

I know that the photon circle or photon sphere is located at around 1.5 times the radius of the Schwarzschild event horizon, but wouldn't it be comparatively further out for smaller black holes? After ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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6 votes
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What do the symbols signify in Dr. Becky Smethurst's radiation pressure equation for black holes?

In her most recent video, "An ULTRAMASSIVE black hole has been discovered in a BRAND NEW way!", as well as a previous video, "How massive can black holes get?", Dr. Becky Smethurst ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
163 views

How does Very Long Baseline Interferometry work?

According to internet sources, this technique increases the effective diameter of the telescope, thus improving the angular resolution of the telescope. However I don't understand how this actually ...
Ambica Govind's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
428 views

What's the meaning of "hard supermassive black hole binary"?

In this paper, the authors state in the Introduction that A hard SMBHB [SuperMassive Black Hole Binary] can eject surrounding stars to transfer their orbital energy and angular momentum, which may be ...
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Could we detect dark matter by black holes gaining unexplained mass?

Dark matter is said to interact only gravitationally, so it won't commonly form black holes by itself. But if a black hole is already there, and dark matter encounters the event horizon, it should go ...
Hene's user avatar
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What is the rotational speed of Sagittarius A*?

Sagittarius A* is the Milky Way's own supermassive black hole. Up till recently, I used to think that Sagittarius A* was a static black hole, i.e. It had no rotational speed at all. But after doing a ...
Arcturus's user avatar
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15 votes
7 answers
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How did the Milky Way quasar not disrupt life on Earth?

According to most sources of information I have found (A Quora answer and books), when galaxies become quasars, they destroy all life in their host galaxy, as they output so much radiation that they ...
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3 votes
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Will the universe eventually merge completely into a single, enormous BH

I see other similar questions, but mine is more specific: If total merger into one BH is the ultimate endgame, then if the universe had no net angular momentum in the beginning, then wouldn't the ...
Paul's user avatar
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3 votes
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206 views

Do all black holes, including stellar-mass ones, rotate at nearly the speed of light? Also, what exactly does that do to their shape?

From what I understand, astrophysicists have known for almost a decade that supermassive black holes seem to spin at incredible velocities; nearly the speed of light... In fact, some of the outer ...
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1 vote
0 answers
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How many massive black holes exist in AGN-type galaxies?

Most galaxies have a massive (i.e., $m \gtrsim 10^5$ M$_{\odot}$) black hole in their center. Is it known 1) theoretically and 2) observationally what fraction of these massive black holes (maybe as a ...
Daddy Kropotkin's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
74 views

What could cause a wind from an SMBH

In this paper, the author tests whether the Milky Way's Fermi bubbles could have been caused by an AGN-type explosion, or by a 'wind'. He comes to the conclusion that the wind may be "the same as ...
Jim421616's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
97 views

How do I create well a weighted black hole mass function?

I'm running a set of simulations to study the evolution of Super Massive black holes. In principle, I have the black hole masses and other property called merger tree weight in Mpc-3 unit which is ...
Matías Liempi's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
2k views

Where is the barycenter of the Milky Way Galaxy?

Is the barycenter of the Milky Way Galaxy located within the supermassive black hole, or its event horizon, at the center of our galaxy?
Bob516's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
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Why were only 4 days of data used in the M87 EHT observation?

I wonder why only 4 days of data were used in the M87 Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observation. What is preventing you from obtaining a more detailed and clearer image over a longer period of time?
Aegean's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
62 views

What does "energy dumped into waves" mean?

In A Very Short Introduction: Black Holes by Katherine Blundell, the author discusses the merger of two black holes in a binary system: The energy released in the merger of two supermassive black ...
Ahmed Samir's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
138 views

Could primordial black holes explain the SMBH in the galactic centers?

If there were enough primordial black holes (with the right mass) they could explain dark matter. Could they explain the gargantuan monster holes in the center of galaxies?
Felicia's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
160 views

Is the dark matter/baryonic matter ratio the same in galaxies with supermassive black holes?

My hypothesis is that if the ratio of dark matter/matter in galaxies with supermassive(weighing billions of suns) black holes are higher the black hole itself would be made of a large portion of dark ...
SuperFlyGuy's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
384 views

Is the appearance of accretion disks of M87 and Sgr A* in EHT image, related to the nucleus being active or non-active?

I'm a newbie in this field so forgive me if I'm considering things wrong. As much as I can see, the newly published image of the Sgr A* looks pretty much the same as M87 released years ago. I'm ...
Tirdad Sadri Nejad's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
930 views

Why is the ring in this simulation of Sgr A* off center?

In the recent releases of images of Sgr A*, simulated versions of what they expected were included along side the actual images they were able to get. What confuses me about these simulated images (...
Justin T's user avatar
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25 votes
3 answers
9k views

Why do some supermassive black holes have a * in their name?

Sgr A*, M87*,... Several supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of galaxies have a star (*) in their name. But many others do not. Is there a physical difference between the SMBHs that are ...
usernumber's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
76 views

Can the Universe itself be a black hole? [duplicate]

Can the Universe be a Black Hole? Many years ago, after reading a book by Isaac Asimov (not a novel, but I forgot the title) I started wondering if it is be possible that the Universe itself is a ...
Joey Joystick's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
155 views

What is the reason for Hercules A to emit huge fountains of Plasma?

Hercules A, a supermassive-blackhole situated in the galaxy 3C 348, emits Plasma as far as 1.5 million light years away !! Although the cause is poorly understood, what could be the possible cause for ...
Kavin Ishwaran's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
128 views

Have any HCSSs (supermassive black holes with a tight bunch of gravitationally bound stars) ever been detected?

This article from sciencealert states: Astronomers think these two galactic cores could merge into one larger black hole, sending huge gravitational waves rippling out across spacetime. But if there'...
Alex's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
84 views

Image of the black hole [duplicate]

The first ever image of a black hole shows a circular black central portion surrounded by an illuminated accretion disk. If a black hole wraps spacetime completely around it, then in any direction it ...
Mohan Mone's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
166 views

Does the density of a black hole decrease after releasing a large amount of Hawking radiation?

Is is true that the smaller a 'regular', stellar-mass black hole is, the denser it is inside of its event horizon? After all, if you look up (or calculate) the Schwarzschild radii of the Sun and the ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
186 views

Is gravity affected by time dilation? [closed]

I just thought about what time realy is but I can't put my head around this so I was thinking that if time dilation happens at the edge of a black hole that just everything gets slower. But does ...
somedude324334's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
147 views

Could quasars be interior to the event horizon of a SMBH?

My question is prompted by suspicion of three current ideas in astrophysics: GR predicts a singularity at the center of a BH without regard to QM. quasar hyper-luminosity is caused by an acretion ...
Henry's user avatar
  • 29
5 votes
3 answers
1k views

Could a black hole's accretion disk be bright through natural means?

This question is based on this description of the Cormoran Supermassive Black Hole in the Orion Arm's website: Surrounding this event horizon is an (apparently artificial) accretion disk about 4AU in ...
JohnWDailey's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
38 views

From where the light comes? [duplicate]

Gravitational field of a supermassive blackhole is so strong that even light cannot escape from it (eg. black hole in the core of M87). In this case when a blackhole tears a star,a bright disk of ...
Kavin Ishwaran's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
308 views

Has gain in mass from accretion onto a black hole been observed?

Have we observed a black hole directly gain mass via accretion? That is, have we observed the black hole to have mass $m_1$ at time $t_1$ and then observed its mass to be $m_2 > m_1$ at a later ...
Daddy Kropotkin's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
6k views

How can a black hole have a charge, or be charged?

So-called 'hairless' black holes (no-hair theory, or theorem?) , which is what real black holes are, can be described by just three characteristics: Mass, spin, and charge. It is easy enough to ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
545 views

Why is the Milky Way's SMBH inactive?

Our galaxy is not an active galactic nucleus (AGN). With so many stars and so much gas orbiting it, as explained here Central kiloparsec of Seyfert and inactive host galaxies: a comparison of two-...
Jim421616's user avatar
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-1 votes
2 answers
175 views

Does black hole singularity really exists with respective to relative frame of reference? [duplicate]

How can one describe this phenomena? What are the factors that we should consider for solving such a problem?
Sivaditya Varma's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
3k views

Can an entire star pass through the event horizon of a black hole unharmed?

Can there be any black hole big enough that a regular sized star can pass through its event horizon unharmed?
S. M. JAHANGIR's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
39 views

What do stars in galaxies without supermassive black holes revolve around? [duplicate]

I still don't quite understand what the stars in galaxies without SBHs revolve around. I mean, the stars must orbit something. If the Sun suddenly disappeared, the planets wouldn't just continue in ...
Giovanni's user avatar
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