Large Telescope detects galaxies in distant universe

The telescope is located atop the Sierra Negra volcano in Puebla, picked up a galaxy at a distance of 12 million light years

The Large Millimeter Telescope is located on top of Tliltépetl in the state of Puebla (Foto: INAOE )

Friday June 17, 2011 Notimex | El Universal21:00

PUEBLA .- The Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) has reached an important milestone in the history of the project, June 1, 2011, when the observations were made to three millimeters in "Detector redshift." This was reported by the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE).
The LMT is a bi-national project led by INAOE in Mexico and the University of Massachusetts in the U.S., publicly funded by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) in Mexico and the National Science Foundation in the United States.
The telescope is located at the top of Tliltépetl or Sierra Negra volcano in the state of Puebla, four thousand 581 meters above sea level and is unique in its kind in the world.
Detector redshift is an spectrometer capable of measuring molecular emission to great distances in the Universe, which the LMT has begun to make observations at wavelengths of telescope design.
The parabolic antenna is designed with a collecting area of ​​50 meters in diameter, of which 32 are operational at this time, and captures radiation in the range of 350 to 75 GHz, which corresponds to wavelengths of 0.85 to four millimeters.
Messier 82 (M82), the first observed object is a galaxy of relatively nearby starburst type, located at a distance of 12 million light years.
These galaxies experience intense outbreaks of star formation, in the case of M82 are induced by the gravitational interaction with the companion galaxy M81.
The cold gas injected into the central regions of the galaxy by the interaction causes a large supply of energy as infrared and millimeter radiation, exciting the interstellar medium of M82 and favors the molecular emission lines shown in the figure.
The LMT has been detected in only half an hour a large collection of emission lines of organic molecules, some of which do not occur naturally on Earth.
Alfonso Serrano Pérez-Groves, project principal investigator, said "without doubt, is the starting point of what will be years and years of fruitful research for Mexico and other nations'.
He noted that "not only provide views of the distant galaxies in the Universe, but also allow us to make a detailed study of the conditions that existed after the Big Bang."
Following these first observations, the LMT has received signals from distant objects, including carbon monoxide detection in galaxies SMM J2135-0102, known as the Tab and MM18423 +5938, whose light is emitted when the universe was only 21 and 12% respectively of its current age.
The light from these galaxies is amplified by gravitational lensing nearby and are curious systems that will study dark matter in the universe.
The scientific director of LMT, David H. Hughes added that "this is a clear demonstration that the requirements scientists with which designed the LMT are realistic, and although the LMT is not yet fully optimized, already allow important research on the early universe."
The final alignment of the primary mirror of the LMT began in December 2010 and was completed in April, allowing the first tests of the entire system with millimeter-wave receivers, said Peter Schloerb, LMT researcher at the University of Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Alberto Carramiñana Alonso, director of the INAOE, pointed to "a great effort to bring this project forward and to sustain future, we need continued support both human and financial resources."
He emphasized that "we are confident that we will have the support of government, industry and academia."
Scientists from all over the world are waiting to see the putting into operation of the telescope, which the national scientific community will have preferential access.
 
 

Black holes common in early universe

Astronomers note that the holes grew more aggressively, the pair of galaxies that host them

 

FORMATION OF THE UNIVERSE. According to this new study very young black holes grew more aggressively, the pair of galaxies that host them (Foto: NASA / Chandra )

Wednesday June 15, 2011 Notimex | El Universal22:00

A team of astronomers from the University of Michigan (UM) found the first direct evidence that giant black holes were common in the early universe.
The experts turned to Chandra X-ray of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which detects very faint objects at great distances, and led the team to a selected portion of the sky for six weeks.
According to research published this week in the journal Nature, very young black holes grew more aggressively, the pair of galaxies that host them.
By combining optical and infrared images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA, the new Chandra data enabled the astronomers find black holes in 200 distant galaxies when the universe was between 800 million and 900 million years old.
"We had reason to expect that black holes exist in many of the earliest galaxies which until now had eluded our searches," said Marta Volonteri, UM astronomer and co-author of the study.
"By comparing the Chandra data with theoretical models, the match was amazing," said the astronomer.

Because black holes are almost all wrapped in thick clouds of gas and dust, often do not detect optical telescopes, but x-rays allows the study.
The large growth means that black holes are related to quasars, bright objects and rare materials strengthened with falling into supermassive black holes giants.
The investigation determined that between 30 and 100% of distant galaxies contain supermassive black holes grow giant.

Volonteri explained that 'the extrapolation of these results from the small field of sky observed the entire sky' to estimate that there are at least 30 million super-giant black holes in the universe.
"This is a factor 10 000 times the estimated number of quasars in the early universe," he said.
"We seem to have found a whole new children's population of black holes," noted study co-author Kevin Schawinski of Yale University.
Scientists had expected to have a population of black holes babies in the early universe, but so far not been observed.
Detailed calculations show that the total growth of black holes observed by the team is about a hundred times greater than most recent estimates.
"Until now we had no idea what made ​​black holes in these early galaxies, or even exist. Now we know they are there and are growing momentum," said Ezequiel Treister of the University of Hawaii and author of the study.
While there is evidence of parallel growth of black holes and galaxies at closer distances, the new Chandra results show that the connection starts earlier than previously thought, perhaps since the origin of both.
"It is thought that in the present universe, black holes and galaxies grow in a symbiotic manner, and we have shown that this co-dependent relationship has existed since the early days," said Priya Natarajan, coauthor of Yale University.

Found second black hole in center of galaxy

 Scientists have detected a black hole in Markarian first 739 or NGC 3758 is located 425 million light years from Earth in the constellation Leo

 

For decades scientists have known of the black hole located east of the galaxy, is the second system with two holes found (Foto: Especial NASA SDSS )

June 10, 2011 Renata Sánchez | El Universal22:20
Other supermassive black hole was found in the center of a galaxy close to Earth that was already identified another hole, scientists reported in an article in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The galaxy known as NGC 3758 Markarian 739 or is located 425 million light years from Earth in the constellation Leo. The astronomers found that the two nuclei of the galaxy are separated by 11 thousand light years and each contains a black hole that consumes the gas falling into it.

Friday

The scientists used data from the Swift satellite and Chandra X-ray Observatory to find the second supermassive black hole, according to the U.S. space agency (NASA) on its website.
Markarian 739 was observed with visible light but was not detected anything until Chandra and Swift provided data that showed another nucleus.

"In the vast majority of the hearts of galaxies, including our own Milky Way, are supermassive black holes weighing millions of times the mass of their soles. Some of them also radiate billion times the energy of their stars, "said Michael Koss, leader of the team that published the article and a researcher at Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA and researcher at the University of Maryland at College Park.
The centers of the galaxies that are so intense emissions are known as active galactic nuclei (AGN), these are the areas that are generally black holes, but only 1% are considered so powerful AGN.
The binary system of AGN has Markarian 739 is the second to the scientists found. Many scientists believe that major disasters such as galaxy collisions can form the AGN, the disclosure of information which would help clarify to understand the origin of the universe.
Since 2004, the telescope Swift BAT ship has been creating a map of the sources of high energy X-rays across the sky. This probe is sensitive to AGN that are more than 650 million light years away from Earth.