Supermassive black hole debate!

By Dr. Becky

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There’s now a big debate raging over whether that’s really what this fuzzy smudge is, with another research group claiming that it’s not a runaway SMBH at all, but instead just a very thin, flat galaxy that we’re seeing from the side, edge-on. So safe to say Sánchez Almeida and collaborators are not convinced by the runaway SMBH argument. But I think I am. My area of research is disk galaxies at large distances, and also nearby bulgeless, flat disk galaxies that host supermassive black holes, so I’d consider myself an expert in what these look like, and I’m not convinced this is a galaxy. It has too much structure for one thing, more than you’d expect to see for a disk galaxy at this distance. To put it another way the light isn’t as smoothly distributed as I’d think/ Plus the light doesn’t fall off from the middle like you’d expect in a disc galaxy either, RBH1 has these sharp edges. And while yes it does have low nitrogen and silicon ratios compared to hydrogen, it still sits

Tags: astronomie, physiks, dr beccy