Yet we have a lot of universe to know. We don’t know everything about the formation of planetary systems, for example. We also don’t know what happens to dark matter and dark energy, but soon the Euclid mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) could give us new information about it. Among all these unknowns there are many about black holes. And we know many things about them; there are also those who wonder in which direction they rotate. But the most interesting is: Are black holes at the center of all galaxies?
We have discussed this with Alberto Corbydirector of the degree in Physical from the International University of La Rioja (UNIR). And he has explained to us whether all galaxies have black holes at their centers.
And it is that “it is practically established and agreed by the scientific community”, he comments to hypertextual Corbí, “many galaxies have an internal black hole”. In addition, the physicist points out that “black holes, together with dark matter, galaxies amalgamate”. “Many galaxies exist because they have a central black hole and because of dark matter,” he adds from the other end of the phone.
It should be noted that we have not yet detected dark matter nor do we know what nature it has; we can only see it interact gravitationally “And it seems to be very common.” Although we know that there are galaxies that do not have dark matter.
Definitely, many galaxies have a black hole at their center. It is not a resounding yes to the question, but it is what we can say with the data we have right now.
About the newly discovered black hole
On the other hand, around black holes, which are usually massive or supermassive. And when a lot of dust can orbit around it, it’s called active nuclei, Corbi says. “This orbit comes to generate all kinds of light, visible, infrared …” he adds.
This week we learned that the team led by the Mexican Violeta Gamez Roses discovered a new black hole in the middle of a cloud of dust and rocks in a distant galaxy known as Messier 77. This is located 47 million light years from our planet, according to data from The country. The study has been published in the scientific journal Nature. And they explain that even in this galaxy there is a supermassive black hole at its center with an active nucleus; that is, with dust and other objects orbiting around it.
As Corbi explains, “a black hole is not a sink.” “It’s a massive object, like a star, and you can orbit around it with no problem. Nothing happens,” she adds. “And this is what occurs to active nuclei, they are dust and rocks, stars, and even planets,” he notes. “Other things happen inside; but outside it is as if it were a star or a planet,” says Corbi.
Moreover, we have already seen an active nucleus. The M87, the one in the Sagittarius A* galaxy. And it is that the images that we saw a few years ago of the first black hole, in fact, were of its active nucleus. Namely, was observed indirectly since what we saw is the matter that orbits around it, as the director of the Physics degree at UNIR points out.
In short, we cannot guarantee that all galaxies have a black hole at their center. But the scientific consensus is that in many of them there are.