The sun might not have been: what galaxies owe to black holes – the discovery of scientists

Huge black holes have controlled the formation of stars in galaxies for billions of years: scientists believe that without this there would be neither the Milky Way nor the Sun

Stars and entire galaxies owe their existence to black holes, scientists have come to this conclusion / Photo: freepik.com, www.space.com

Black holes and galaxies are connected by complex “relationships”, scientists have found out: there is a hole in the core of every galaxy, on which the formation of stars dependsin the Universe.

We also wrote that NASA made a mistake: the activity of the Sun is growing, not falling – what awaits earthlings. And while these black holes are indeed massive—weighing millions or even billions of solar masses—they are tiny compared to their home galaxies, reaching less than 1% of the mass of a typical galaxy and a billion times smaller in volume.

Despite the huge discrepancy between the sizes of galaxies and black holes, these massive holes are able to have a huge impact, controlling the rate of star formation over billions of years. Scientists believe that it is this activity around the supermassive black hole that underlies the intriguing connection between black holes and their host galaxies.

Known as the M-sigma ratio, it is the relationship between the mass of a supermassive black hole (M) and the velocity dispersion in the gas of a galaxy’s core (denoted by the Greek letter sigma). This tight connection between a black hole and its surroundings is called feedback, and it regulates both the growth of the black hole and the energy in the galaxy, setting the M-sigma relation.

Without giant black holes, galaxies would live fast and die young, and the Sun might never have come into existence.

Without giant black holes, galaxies would live fast and die young, and the Sun might never have come into being. / Photo: www.space.com

Without giant black holes, galaxies would live fast and die youngand, leaving behind populations of small, red, dim stars and no new star formation in the current era of the universe. So, our galaxy – the Milky Way has its own giant black hole, called Sagittarius A.

Now it is relatively calm there, the last explosion of the galaxy safely occurred millions of years ago. But while this black hole seems ominous, it is an important part of regulating the evolution of every galaxy, keeping stars forming evenly. Perhaps without it, the Milky Way ran out of star-forming gas a long time ago, and The sun would never have appeared at all.

We also wrote that living on Mars is possible: Curiosity found evidence to the delight of NASA.

Source: Segodnya

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