{"id":620,"date":"2008-09-12T00:58:02","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T05:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/?p=620"},"modified":"2008-09-12T00:58:08","modified_gmt":"2008-09-12T05:58:08","slug":"how-supermassive-black-holes-help-galaxies-evolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/?p=620","title":{"rendered":"How supermassive black holes help galaxies evolve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/black-hole-nasa.jpg\" title=\"black-hole-nasa.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/black-hole-nasa.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"black-hole-nasa.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to imagine that our understanding of the way galaxies form and evolve is more or less complete. After all, we&#8217;ve been fitting missing pieces into the jigsaw at an alarming rate in recent years with all this data from WMAP etc about the structure of the early universe, a better understanding of the distribution of dark matter and the vast computer simulations that show how galaxies should appear out of this maelstrom.<\/p>\n<p>But there are one or two hairs in this astrophysical ointment. For example, our models of galaxy formation indicate that certain types of galaxies should become surrounded by huge clouds of gas in which stars ought to be forming.  But observations show that there are far fewer of these types of galaxies than the models predict.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Timothy Heckman of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore discusses the idea that supermassive black holes at the center of these galaxies might explain the difference. The thinking is that black holes generate and spread enough energy to the outer reaches of the galaxy to regulate star formation in a way that fits with observations. We&#8217;ve certainly seen good evidence of supermassive black holes in various galaxies, including our own.<\/p>\n<p>But what makes Heckman&#8217;s discussion highly provocative is the suggestions that a symbiotic relationship exists between galaxies and supermassive black holes, that they need each other to form. So supermassive black holes are as important in galactic evolution as gas, dust and gravity. What an idea!<\/p>\n<p>What that means is that far from being a done deal, galaxy formation is set to become one of the hottest topics in astronomy as data from  the next generation of space telescopes comes flooding in.<\/p>\n<p>PS: Heckman has a great name for the study of gas-star-black hole cosmic ecosystems. He calls it gastrophysics. Like it!<\/p>\n<p>Ref: <a href=\"http:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/0809.1101\">arxiv.org\/abs\/0809.1101<\/a>: The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Black Holes: Current Status and Future Prospects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s easy to imagine that our understanding of the way galaxies form and evolve is more or less complete. After all, we&#8217;ve been fitting missing pieces into the jigsaw at an alarming rate in recent years with all this data from WMAP etc about the structure of the early universe, a better understanding of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-changin-the-world","category-hellraisin","category-stars-in-their-eyes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}