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Questions tagged [supermassive-black-hole]

Questions regarding the most massive examples of black holes that typically reside at the centers of galaxies.

9 votes
2 answers
926 views

Why is the ring in this simulation of Sgr A* off center?

In the recent releases of images of Sgr A*, simulated versions of what they expected were included along side the actual images they were able to get. What confuses me about these simulated images (...
Justin T's user avatar
  • 3,404
25 votes
3 answers
9k views

Why do some supermassive black holes have a * in their name?

Sgr A*, M87*,... Several supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of galaxies have a star (*) in their name. But many others do not. Is there a physical difference between the SMBHs that are ...
usernumber's user avatar
  • 17.6k
1 vote
0 answers
75 views

Can the Universe itself be a black hole? [duplicate]

Can the Universe be a Black Hole? Many years ago, after reading a book by Isaac Asimov (not a novel, but I forgot the title) I started wondering if it is be possible that the Universe itself is a ...
Joey Joystick's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
150 views

What is the reason for Hercules A to emit huge fountains of Plasma?

Hercules A, a supermassive-blackhole situated in the galaxy 3C 348, emits Plasma as far as 1.5 million light years away !! Although the cause is poorly understood, what could be the possible cause for ...
Kavin Ishwaran's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
125 views

Have any HCSSs (supermassive black holes with a tight bunch of gravitationally bound stars) ever been detected?

This article from sciencealert states: Astronomers think these two galactic cores could merge into one larger black hole, sending huge gravitational waves rippling out across spacetime. But if there'...
Alex's user avatar
  • 701
0 votes
1 answer
84 views

Image of the black hole [duplicate]

The first ever image of a black hole shows a circular black central portion surrounded by an illuminated accretion disk. If a black hole wraps spacetime completely around it, then in any direction it ...
Mohan Mone's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
153 views

Does the density of a black hole decrease after releasing a large amount of Hawking radiation?

Is is true that the smaller a 'regular', stellar-mass black hole is, the denser it is inside of its event horizon? After all, if you look up (or calculate) the Schwarzschild radii of the Sun and the ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
  • 5,177
0 votes
2 answers
178 views

Is gravity affected by time dilation? [closed]

I just thought about what time realy is but I can't put my head around this so I was thinking that if time dilation happens at the edge of a black hole that just everything gets slower. But does ...
somedude324334's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
146 views

Could quasars be interior to the event horizon of a SMBH?

My question is prompted by suspicion of three current ideas in astrophysics: GR predicts a singularity at the center of a BH without regard to QM. quasar hyper-luminosity is caused by an acretion ...
Henry's user avatar
  • 29
5 votes
3 answers
1k views

Could a black hole's accretion disk be bright through natural means?

This question is based on this description of the Cormoran Supermassive Black Hole in the Orion Arm's website: Surrounding this event horizon is an (apparently artificial) accretion disk about 4AU in ...
JohnWDailey's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
36 views

From where the light comes? [duplicate]

Gravitational field of a supermassive blackhole is so strong that even light cannot escape from it (eg. black hole in the core of M87). In this case when a blackhole tears a star,a bright disk of ...
Kavin Ishwaran's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
265 views

Has gain in mass from accretion onto a black hole been observed?

Have we observed a black hole directly gain mass via accretion? That is, have we observed the black hole to have mass $m_1$ at time $t_1$ and then observed its mass to be $m_2 > m_1$ at a later ...
Daddy Kropotkin's user avatar
13 votes
4 answers
6k views

How can a black hole have a charge, or be charged?

So-called 'hairless' black holes (no-hair theory, or theorem?) , which is what real black holes are, can be described by just three characteristics: Mass, spin, and charge. It is easy enough to ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
  • 5,177
7 votes
1 answer
454 views

Why is the Milky Way's SMBH inactive?

Our galaxy is not an active galactic nucleus (AGN). With so many stars and so much gas orbiting it, as explained here Central kiloparsec of Seyfert and inactive host galaxies: a comparison of two-...
Jim421616's user avatar
  • 2,600
-2 votes
2 answers
157 views

Does black hole singularity really exists with respective to relative frame of reference? [duplicate]

How can one describe this phenomena? What are the factors that we should consider for solving such a problem?
Sivaditya Varma's user avatar

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