Black holes are often described as monsters of the universe, tearing apart stars, consuming anything that gets too close to them, and trapping light.
However, detailed evidence from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows that black holes are not always violent and destructive, and instead, appear to be capable of forming stars, not just eating them.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered such a black hole in the galaxy known as Henize 2-10, which is 30 million light-years away in the southern constellation of the “Needle Hole” or “Pyxis”, where it promotes star formation rather than devouring it.
Hubble imaging and spectroscopy of the dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10 clearly show a gas flow extending from the black hole into a bright stellar birth region like an umbilical cord, causing the already dense cloud to form star clusters.
Astronomers previously discussed that a dwarf galaxy could have a black hole similar to supermassive black holes in larger galaxies. Further studies of dwarf galaxies, which have remained small over cosmic time, may shed light on the question of how the first seeds of supermassive black holes formed and evolved over the course of the universe’s history.
In addition to suggesting that black holes may be more productive than we thought, this new research could also help scientists understand where supermassive black holes come from.
“I knew from the start that something unusual and special was happening in Henize 2-10, and now Hubble gives us a very clear picture of the relationship between The black hole and the neighboring star-forming region located 230 light-years from the black hole.”
And that connection is a flow of gas that stretches through space like an umbilical cord into a bright stellar nursery. The area was already home to a dense cocoon of gas when the low-speed flow of plasma arrived.
Hubble’s spectroscopy shows that the outflow was moving at about a million miles per hour, hitting the thick gas like a garden hose hitting a pile of dirt and spreading.
Clusters of infant stars are scattered along the outflow propagation path, and Hubble has calculated their ages as well.
In larger galaxies, material falling into the black hole is disintegrated by their magnetic fields, resulting in bursts of plasma moving at nearly the speed of light. Any gas cloud caught in those currents would become too hot to form stars.
However, Henize 2-10’s smaller black hole, and its gentle flow of material, means the gas has been compressed enough to help form stars, not to prevent it from doing so.
Zachary Schott, a graduate student and lead author of the new study, explains:
“Only 30 million light-years away, Henize 2-10 is close enough that Hubble can capture images and spectral evidence of a flowing black hole very clearly. The added surprise was that instead of suppressing star formation, the flow led to the birth of new stars.”
This new study of the black hole conducted using the Hubble telescope could also help provide better details about how these supermassive black holes form. Because they are kept small, they may provide a picture of what other, larger black holes looked like when they were younger, and how they might form and grow.