Supermassive
black
holes are often accompanied by two things: an accretion
disk
of matter in its death throws and a pair of relativistic
jets that eject some of this matter in a last-minute pardon prior to its removal
from the universe. While black holes are known for capturing every bit
of matter or energy that gets too close, it has also been theorized that they will eventually stop growing. It is believed that these two
phenomena—matter being devoured at the edge of the disk while being
pushed away by the jets—form a sort of self-regulating system
that
keeps these monsters in check.
While this self-regulatory behavior is believed to be common in
supermassive black holes, the extreme mass scales involved mean that the dynamics of the system
occur on extremely long time scales, on the order of tens of thousands of years. However, if
the
black hole is smaller—on the order of a few solar
masses—then
the dynamics of these phenomena should operate on more earthly
timescales, such as a few hours. It’s worth checking, because if these phenomena are not detected in
smaller black holes, then physics has a big problem on its hands, since
the same equations describe both sizes of black holes.
Click here to read the rest of this article
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Ars Technica
