A team of international scientists spotted five supermassive black holes that have been hiding behind a cloud of dust and gas. The discovery provides evidence that there might be millions of undiscovered supermassive black holes in the universe.
Researchers at Durham University, UK, were analyzing the images returned by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) satellite observatory, which can focus light on black holes with high-energy X-rays, when they spotted the hidden supermassive black holes. There were nine candidates; but, after careful analysis, the findings amounted to five supermassive black holes.
"For a long time we have known about supermassive black holes that are not obscured by dust and gas, but we suspected many more were hidden from our view," George Lansbury, lead author and a postgraduate student in the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, at Durham University, said in a news release.
The black holes were much brighter and more active than previously thought as they consume the surrounding materials and radiation. They were a bit faint when the scientists first saw them because of the dust and gas.
"Thanks to NuSTAR for the first time we have been able to clearly see these hidden monsters that are predicted to be there, but have previously been elusive because of their 'buried' state," Lansbury added.
The scientists believe that they are more black holes in the Universe waiting to be discovered.
"High-energy X-rays are more penetrating than low-energy X-rays, so we can see deeper into the gas burying the black holes. NuSTAR allows us to see how big the hidden monsters are, and is helping us learn why only some black holes appear obscured," Daniel Stern, the project scientist for NuSTAR at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, added.
The findings were presented in July 6 at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales.
