Discovery of a supermassive black hole hidden in a cloud of cosmic dust

Dutch researchers have discovered a supermassive black hole hidden in a ring of dust.

This study focused on an active galactic nucleus, also known as AGN in the English abbreviation. These extremely energetic resources are fueled by supermassive black holes. Cosmic dust and gas from the environment coil up in this black hole and are engulfed, releasing huge amounts of energy. As a result, such an active core often radiates brighter than all the stars in the rest of the galaxy combined.

They were first noticed in the 1950s and astronomers now know a lot about these AGNs. For example, that there are different types. Some are sources of visible light, some are sources of radio emissions, and some – like this galaxy we are currently observing – are less visible.

Well, there is a theory, now 30 years old, called the Unified Model of AGNs. And according to this theory, although they are different, AGNs have the same basic structure. Namely: a supermassive black hole, surrounded by a thick ring of dust. The researchers wanted to know if this was also true for a galaxy located 47 million light-years from Earth. What they found when looking at the data wasn’t quite what they expected…

In this audio you can hear lead researcher Violeta Gámez Rosas from Leiden University. Learn more here: Dutch researchers reveal hidden supermassive black hole†