A NASA telescope investigates a mysterious light source

Astronomers who have spent decades analyzing observations from telescopes like the Swift NASA have discovered an unusual source of light in a galaxy 90 million light-years.

The curious object properties make it a good candidate to be a supermassive black hole ejected from its galaxy after merging with another that created a giant black hole. But astronomers can not yet rule out an alternative possibility.

    The source called SDSS1133, may be the remnant of a massive star that exploded during a record period of time before its destruction in a supernova explosion.

    "With the data we have, still can not distinguish between the two scenarios," said lead researcher Michael Koss, an astronomer at the ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. "An exciting discovery made with Swift is that the brightness of SDSS1133 has changed little in visible or ultraviolet light for a decade, all of which is not typically seen in a remnant of a young supernova".

In a study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Koss and colleagues report that the light source has been significantly light in visible light during the last six months, a trend which, if sustained, would strengthen the interpretation of the hole. To analyze the subject in greater detail, the team is planning ultraviolet observations with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope to October 2015.

DETECTED DURING 60 YEARS

    Whatever it is, SDSS1133 is persistent. The team has been able to detect it in astronomical surveys dating back over 60 years.
The mysterious object is in the dwarf galaxy Markarian 177, which is in the bowl of the Big Dipper, well known within the star constellation Ursa Major. Although supermassive black holes tend to occupy the centers of galaxies, the location of SDSS1133 is less than 2,600 light years from the base of the host galaxy.

    High-resolution investigations in 2013, using the Keck 10-meter telescope II, show that SDSS1133 emitting area is less than 40 light-years in diameter and the center of Markarian 177 shows evidence of intense star formation and disruption recent.

    "We suspect we are seeing the consequences of a merger of two smaller galaxies and their central black holes," said co-author Laura Blecha on a NASA statement.

    The collision and merger of two galaxies alters its forms and results in new episodes of star formation. If each galaxy has a supermassive black hole at the center, will form a binary pair bound in the center of the merged galaxy ultimately.

    Black holes merging releases a large amount of energy in the form of gravitational radiation, a consequence of gravity theory Einstein.
    The ripples in the fabric of spacetime produced an acceleration of the masses outward in all directions. If two black holes have masses and equal turns, merging gravitational waves emitted uniformly in all directions. Chances are that the masses of black holes grios be different, leading to the emission of gravitational waves unbalanced throwing the black hole in the opposite direction.

    The kick may be enough to throw the black hole completely outside their galaxy, causing it to move forever through intergalactic space, or at least send it to an elongated orbit. Despite this phenomenon, the black hole expelled retain any hot gas trapped around and continue to shine as it moves along the new road until all the gas is consumed.

    If SDSS1133 is not a black hole, it could have been a very rare kind of star known as a luminous blue variable (LBV). These massive stars episodic eruptions. Interpreted in this way, SDSS1133 represent the longest period of LBV eruptions ever observed, extended almost continuously since at least 1950-2001, when it reached the maximum brightness and supernova was made.

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