Super high -quality black hole: "monster" in the center of galaxy

A few days ago, celebrity physicists at Stanford University in the United States used the European Air Sky Bureau's XMM-Newton and NASTAR Space Telescope at NASA to observe the light behind a black hole. This is the first time that scientists have observed the light behind the black hole, and may let us understand the black hole to the next level. The black hole is one of the most "incredible celestial bodies" in the universe. Since its spontaneous discovery, it has been the focus of research by astronomers and physicists. But its secrets have not been revealed.

Where is the black hole?

Find in galaxy and stars

The black hole is one of the most mysterious celestial bodies in the universe. As early as the 18th century, Mitchell in the UK and Laplas in France set out theoretical predictions from Newtonian mechanics: there may be an invisible "dark star" in the universe. Large, so that the speed of the surface of its surface exceeds the speed of light, causing the light it to emit cannot escape its surface.

In 1915, shortly after Einstein published a broad sense theory, Swalan in Germany obtained a static Swadas from Einstein's gravitational field. According to its theoretical prediction, we could not learn from the outside that a critical radius was learned from the outside. (That is, any information in the vision). The special space -time area in this field was later named "black hole".

So, is there really a black hole in the theoretical prediction in the universe? Where can I find a black hole? How big is their quality?

The theory of star evolution established in the 20th century tells us that large quality stars with more than 25 times the quality of the sun in the universe will produce a severe supernova burst before death. Star black hole. There are 100 billion stars in the galaxy, but at present, scientists have only found dozens of star -rated black holes in the Milky Way, and a large number of star -rated black holes are waiting for us to discover. The Galaxy is just an ordinary member of the galaxy family. There are still a large number of galaxies outside the galaxy. The number of black holes in the universe is much more than we are currently observed.

So, is there a black hole heavier than a star black hole? What kind of galaxies will they appear? Where will it be in the galaxy? Before answering these questions, let's introduce what is the Safeter galaxy and star -like body.

We know that galaxy is the basic unit of the universe, and stars and gas are the main components of the galaxy. In 1943, American astronomer Safete noticed that the central area of ​​some galaxies was particularly bright. He first filmed the core spectrum of these galaxies and found that there were strong and wide launch rays in the spectrum, which was completely different from the star spectrum. Such galaxies It was later known as the "Safeter Galaxy". In 1959, American astronomer Walter pointed out that the core areas of the Safeter galaxy produced a wide launch rays must have a strong gravity field. The quality of the material in this area is estimated to be about 100 million times the quality of the sun. So, the question is: What are these substances that produce strong gravity?

In the 1950s, radar detection technology was used in astronomy research, which greatly promoted the improvement of observation capabilities. The radio astronomers of Cambridge University in the UK have compiled the hundreds of universe radio power sources discovered into tables. Scientists are guessing what celestial bodies are these radio power sources? The optical correspondence with optical telescopes to find these radiation sources became a very important job at that time. In continuous research, scientists have found that some radio power sources have similar optical properties, and they call these "star -like power sources" as star -like. The star -like body is actually the core of the distant galaxy. Its spectrum is similar to the Cefter galaxy, but the red shifts of the thread, farther distance and stronger radiation energy. So, the question comes again: The huge source of energy of these stars can not be a thermal nuclear reaction in ordinary stars. What physical mechanism does it come from?

In 1964, the Soviet scientist Zeldovich and American scientist Salpitt found that the large quality black hole (quality exceeds one million times solar quality) may exist in the center of the galaxy in the stars. Volume the surrounding gases and release huge energy, thereby forming a star -like body. This bold explanation lays the physical foundation of the star -like body.

It is also the discussion of star -like energy issues that prompted British mathematical physicist Pengros in 1965 to re -consider the problem of the collapse of large -quality celestial gravitational collapse -he uses the general theory of relativity to prove that the formation of black holes is inevitable. It has made important contributions to the theory of black holes, and therefore won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020.

In 1969, the British scientist Lindenberg proposed the concept of accumulation of the black hole movement and calculated the radiation intensity of the black hole accumulation to further confirm that the source of huge energy of the star body was the gravity released by the substance accumulated by the large quality black hole. Essence With the 1973 Soviet scientist Chaura and Sanyayev and 1974 American scientists Peggy and Torn established a standard accumulation model model, eventually the large -quality black hole accumulation model became a star -like body and the Safete galaxy and other activities Standard model of galaxy nuclear energy mechanism.

Except for the center of the galaxy of the galaxy with huge radiation energy such as star -like and Cefield galaxy, is there a large quality black hole in the center of normal galaxies? In 1969, Linden Bell pointed out that when there is no material around the black hole in the center of the star body, there is no material that can be accumulated by the black hole, and they will become a "death" star, becoming an unconventional normal galaxy. Therefore, many normal galaxy centers will also have large quality black holes with a mass of up to millions to billions of times of solar quality. In 1971, Linden Bell and Ris also demonstrated that there should be a large quality black hole in the Milky Way Center, and proposed that the long baseline interference technology of using radio power bands should determine the size of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way. How to "see" black hole?

Discover the large quality black hole in the center of the neighboring galaxy

Although scientists in the 1960s proposed a large -quality black hole in the center of normal galaxies, it was very difficult to confirm this, because observations that needed ultra -high space resolution could be given convincing evidence.

Utilizing the large -scale optical telescope on the ground, astronomers started spectral observations of several very close neighbors such as M31 and M32 in the center of the 1980s. Evidence, but in view of the limited spatial resolution, the results are greatly uncertain. This situation was not significantly improved until the launch of Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. The Hubble Telescope has a space resolution of up to 0.1 corners. The observation ability is often 10 times higher than the ground telescope. It has greatly improved the observation of the original ground telescope after 1995. The central area of ​​the far -farther galaxy was observed, and the quality of the large black holes of these galaxies centers accurately measured the quality of these galaxies.

There are generally three methods to measure the quality of black holes in the center of the neighboring galaxy, that is, the use of stars around the center of the center of the center, ionizing gases, and microwave pulse dynamic methods. The first two were applied to the observations of dozens of neighboring galaxies center black holes in Hubble telescope and ground optical telescope. In the past 20 years, adaptive optical technology that uses computers to control telescopic mirror shapes is generally applied to infrared astronomical observations of large -scale telescopes on the ground, and the impact of the earth's atmosphere can be effectively eliminated through mirror deformation.

German astronomer Genzer and American astronomer Gates used this technology to use the great telescope in Chile and the Kaic telescope in Hawaii in the United States for more than 20 years of infrared bands for dozens of stars around the galaxy center. Monitoring, the quality of the black hole in the center of the galaxy is 4 million times the quality of the solar (the two shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics in Pueros).

Since 1995, microwave pulse dynamic methods using radio telescopes interference through radio telescope interference through detection of the Kipler movement around the black hole movement, and combined with the custard second -level ultra -high space resolution of the interference technology. Scientists can Measure the quality of some black holes in the center of neighboring galaxies very accurately.

In recent years, this technology has also expanded to measure the quality of the central black hole of the neighboring galaxy by using the motion of carbon monoxide gas gas by using the millimeter wave array telescope (such as Chile). By observation of the Alma telescope observation of the ALMA telescopes of the galaxy NGC135 and NGC4261, the quality of the black holes in the heart was 2.08 billion and 1.67 billion times the solar quality.

The direct imaging of the large -quality black hole in the near -neighboring galaxy center is the most breakthrough progress made in the research of black holes in recent years. To achieve this imaging, it requires a spatial resolution of up to tens of microcoorite seconds. On April 10, 2019, the events of the events of the events of the event of more than 200 astronomers in the world (EHT) international cooperation team announced the global EHT very long baseline interference array of the world's EHT in April 2017 using the global eight millimeter wave telescope. The first black hole photo caused a sensation in the world. This black hole is located in the center of ellipsoid Al87, which is 50 million light years on the earth. The "shadow" of the black hole can be seen directly on the photo and the shadow around the black hole but the brightness of the north to the north. This is a photo of the millimeter -band celebrities taken by astronomers to obtain the highest spatial resolution (20 microcolar seconds) that has used the diameter of the earth's diameter. The shadow of it directly proves the existence of the black hole. The interference of the EHT 8 telescope has obtained a more accurate distance of 5.48 million light years from the Earth, and the quality of the black hole in the M87 center is 6.5 billion times the mass of the M87 center.

On May 12, 2022, the EHT International Cooperation Team announced the photos of the large -quality black holes taken by the Milky Way Center in April 2017 with the EHT interference array. Essence The size of the shadow also confirms that the galaxy center has a large quality black hole with a quality of 4 million times the quality of the solar. Seeing is true, these black holes make humans feel the existence of large quality black holes visually. In my country, more than a dozen scientists have participated in the shooting of these black holes by the Shanghai Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and made important contributions to this.

How to measure black holes?

"Weight" for the large quality black hole in the center of the galaxy center

Although the dynamic method has achieved certain results in the quality of the black hole in the center of the neighboring galaxy, because the center of most activity galaxies is too bright, and the strongest starry star is more far away, so stars and gas dynamic methods are not Applicable, you must use other methods to obtain the quality of the black hole in the heart. There are strong and wide emitting rays in the spectrum of many Safeter galaxies and stars, and the width of the emission can reflect the movement speed of the gas of the width transmitting area. Through a technology called "spectrum response mapping", scientists use telescope to obtain the time delay of the two from the wide emission rays and continuous spectrum strength from the long -term spectrum monitoring of these celestial bodies, so that they can get the time of the two, so they can get it. The radius from the wide -labron area to the central black hole, so that the dynamic dynamic method of measuring the quality of the black hole in the center of the neighboring galaxy can be imitated through the radius and speed of the wide emission area to obtain the quality of the galaxy center of the galaxy center.

Over the past 30 years, many teams, including Chinese scientists, have passed this method to observe the quality of more than 100 Cetergal galaxies and star -like black holes. The results show that the quality of the black hole in the Safeter galaxy is generally one million to 100 million times the solar quality, while the quality of the black hole of the star body is generally tens of millions to billions of times the solar quality.

The spectral response mapping technology can obtain long -term light transformation data because it needs to occupy a lot of telescope observation time, and the application range is still very limited. However, astronomers summarized the rules of the existing results -the empirical relationship between the radius and continuous spectrum of the launch area (R ~ L relationship). In this way, using a single spectrum observation of the active galaxy to obtain continuous spectral light and width of the width of the hair, and then apply this experience relationship to obtain the radius of the emitting area, and the quality of the central black hole can be estimated.

This method has been widely used in the SDSS (SDSS) of the United States and the Lamost Telescope (LAMOST) spectrum of the United States. At present, hundreds of thousands of stars have been found in astronomers. Among them, Chinese astronomers use Lamost telescope to find more than 20,000 stars. The quality of the central black holes of these hundreds of thousands of stars was obtained using the measurement of wide -emitting rays, and the quality was mostly distributed in the range of tens of millions to 10 billion times solar quality.

R ~ L experience relationship is also used to observe the quality of some of the most distant star centers through spectral observations of infrared bands. In 2015, the team led by Peking University used the Chinese Academy of Sciences Yunnan Tianwen Territory Lijiang 2.4 meters telescope to discover the brightest stars J0100+2802 in the early days of the universe. The quality of the central black hole was as high as 12 billion times the solar quality. In 2021, the leader of the University of Arizona discovered the Star-like J0313-1806. The quality of the central black hole was 1.6 billion times the solar quality. It is currently known as the oldest black hole.

The discovery of these most distant large -scale black holes challenged the theory of existing galaxies and black holes. How to form such a large black hole in a short time in the early days in the early days of the universe, which requires scientists to give a new one. Theoretical explanation.

Research is still continuing -the Weibu Space Space Telescope (JWST) launched in the United States in December 2021 has begun to observe the most distant galaxies and stars in infrared bands. It is expected to discover the older large quality black holes in the early days of the universe. Around 2024, my country will also launch the China Space Station Tour Space Telescope (CSSST), and carry out high -space resolution large sky imaging and spectral observations. It is conceivable that with the advancement of observation methods and the accumulation of observation data, we will find several million large -quality black holes, thereby revealing more mysteries about these galaxy centers "super monsters".

(Author: Wu Xuebing, a professor and director of the Department of Astronomy of the School of Physics of Peking University, Deputy Director of the Institute of Science and Celestial Physics of Kewei)

【Edit: Tian Boqun】

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