L-R Prof David Alexander and Ady Annuar, Department of Physics
Monster black holes sometimes play a cosmic game of hide and seek, shrouding themselves from view behind giant clouds of gas and dust, according to new research. Scientists believe supermassive black holes lurk at the centres of most big galaxies, but many are hidden from the view of most telescopes. Now astronomers at Durham and Southampton universities, working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), have confirmed in separate studies that two of these cosmic giants had been hidden by thick layers of gas and dust at the heart of galaxies near to our own Milky Way. High-energy X-ray emissions Using NASA's space-based NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission, the scientists were able to detect high-energy X-ray emissions generated by the black holes as they feed on surrounding material. The research could provide more information about supermassive black holes, allowing them to be studied in more detail. The findings were presented jointly at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Grapevine, Texas. Ady Annuar , a postgraduate researcher in Durham's Department of Physics , led a study looking at the black hole at the centre of the NGC 1448 spiral galaxy.
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