Space Program Detects the Most Extensive Collection of Black Holes in Space, Many Potential Dwarf Galaxies Revealed
Despite extensive research over decades, experts still believe they have a huge ground to cover when it comes to space. At every turn, astronomers are uncovering new things about the universe beyond Earth. Recently Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) placed in Arizona stunned researchers with its never-before-done feat. Findings regarding the discovery have been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
The program detected what astronomers believe to be the most extensive collection of intermediate-mass black hole candidates as well as potential dwarf galaxies hosting active black holes. Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) was attached to NSF’s Nicholas U. Mayall 4-m telescope when these findings were made, stated Sci News. As per researchers, the results indicated the presence of 2,800 possible black holes in total.
The instrument examined 410,757 galaxies throughout the whole process. Amongst them, the team identified 114,496 to be dwarf galaxies. Further investigation unveiled that 2,500 of these potential dwarf galaxies contained an active galactic nucleus (AGN). This nucleus represents a black hole, and if the assertion is true then it is the largest sample of such phenomenons to be ever observed by astronomers in dwarf galaxies.
Past studies claimed that only around 0.5% of dwarf galaxies hosted an AGN. This study though proves this claim to be wrong, as findings indicate that around 2% of dwarf galaxies host this phenomenon. This made scientists speculate that multiple low-mass black holes possibly went undetected by previous examinations. Another look through the acquired data by DESI made researchers spot 300 intermediate-mass black hole candidates. This was also the most extensive collection of such specimens. In total, researchers had in their hands evidence of 2,800 black holes in the universe.
Another unique element that astronomers noted was that only 70 of the newly discovered intermediate-mass black hole candidates aligned in size with specimens in dwarf galaxies. Even though the dwarf galaxy specimens were determined to be of intermediate mass. This raises questions on present assertions regarding black hole formations. Researchers are hopeful that the huge sample will help them to understand this anomaly.
Experts believe a huge reason behind this discovery was the instrument's features. "The technological design of DESI was important for this project, particularly its small fiber size, which allowed us to better zoom in on the center of galaxies and identify the subtle signatures of active black holes," said Dr. Stephanie Juneau, an astronomer at NSF’s NOIRLab. "With other fiber spectrographs with larger fibers, more starlight from the galaxy’s outskirts comes in and dilutes the signals we’re searching for. This explains why we managed to find a higher fraction of active black holes in this work relative to previous efforts."
The project involved 900 researchers from more than 70 institutions worldwide, stated U.K. Research and Innovation. DESI's objective is to examine how dark energy impacts universe expansion. Researchers claim that it has the power to capture light from 5,000 galaxies simultaneously. Experts were ecstatic with the discovery as it showcased DESI's potential.
"The findings from this project illustrate DESI’s potential to push the limits of the known Universe. Having witnessed the development and outcomes of this brilliant work, we are really excited to see what else will be unearthed from DESI’s treasure trove of extra-galactic observations," Rahma Alfarsy, from the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation said.