Tag Archives: small galaxies

The Search for Seeds of Black Holes

By Guest PostMarch 26, 2014Scienceblack hole, dwarf galaxies, exploding stars, feeding black holes, history of universe, small galaxies

How do you grow a supermassive black hole that is a million to a billion times the mass of our sun? Astronomers do not know the answer, but a new study using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has turned up what might be the cosmic seeds from which a black hole will sprout. The results are helping scientists piece together the evolution of supermassive black holes — powerful objects that dominate the hearts of all galaxies. (more…)

CU-Boulder-Led Hubble Astronomy Team Uncovers Evidence of Early Heated Universe

By Guest PostOctober 8, 2010Scienceastrophysical and planetary sciences, big bang, black hole, black holes, charles danforth, cos, cosmic origins spectrograph, dwarf galaxies, galaxies, global warming, hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, kevin france, michael shull, NASA, quasar beacon, radiation, remote universe, small galaxies, universal warming, universe, university of colorado at boulder

If you think global warming is bad, 11 billion years ago the entire universe underwent what might be called universal warming. The consequence of that early heating was that fierce blasts of radiation from voracious black holes stunted the growth of some small galaxies for a stretch of 500 million years. (more…)