Astronomers say they’ve discovered that the massive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy will soon consume a gas cloud. Video below: Space.com
Click here to see a cool video simulation from the image above.
Photo credit: NASA.gov
Here’s an excerpt from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA. In it, reps sum up a recent discovery of millions black holes, via its Chandra scope. Check this out. Full story on the NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE ) survey mission here.
NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies.
Images from the telescope have revealed millions of dusty black hole candidates across the universe and about 1,000 even dustier objects thought to be among the brightest galaxies ever found. These powerful galaxies, which burn brightly with infrared light, are nicknamed hot DOGs.
“WISE has exposed a menagerie of hidden objects,” said Hashima Hasan, WISE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We’ve found an asteroid dancing ahead of Earth in its orbit, the coldest star-like orbs known and now, supermassive black holes and galaxies hiding behind cloaks of dust.”
WISE scanned the whole sky twice in infrared light, completing its survey in early 2011. Like night-vision goggles probing the dark, the telescope captured millions of images of the sky. All the data from the mission have been released publicly, allowing astronomers to dig in and make new discoveries.
