Chinese astronomers presented new findings regarding the central region of the neighboring galaxy NGC 3319. They believe that they were able to find a candidate for average-weight black holes hiding in the center of the galaxy.
Black holes of average mass (from 100 to 1000000 solar) are still elusive objects. However, they seem incredibly valuable to scientists, as they are able to fill the gap between the black holes of stellar mass and supermassive black holes. Their origin remains a mystery, but scientists are trying to find the answers, believing that massive black holes sprout from much smaller "seeds."
On the left is the image of NGC 3319 from the SDSS, and on the right is a photo of the central part. Bright compact center marked green circle with a radius of 1 ”. Blue Cross - the position of the point source found by the Chandra Observatory
The list of known candidates contains hundreds of objects and continues to expand, although so far none have been confirmed. Such black holes of average mass are difficult to find, because the radii of their gravitational influence are too small to catch them spatially, even in a neighboring galaxy. Therefore, astronomers use the method of searching for dwarf active galactic nuclei for identification. Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China conducted a similar search, analyzing data from the Chandra space observatories, XMM-Newton and the Hubble space telescope. The analysis led to the discovery of a promising candidate for a black hole of average mass in the galaxy NGC 3319, distant by 47 million light years.
The x-ray point source spatially coincides with the optical and UV-galactic nucleus of the Hubble observation. Researchers say that the black hole in the center of NGC 3319 is endowed with a relatively low bolometric luminosity of 36 duo-deciles (from 300 to 300,000 solar masses).
There is also an assumption that the find can be one of the least massive candidates for black holes of average mass. This source is important to study due to the proximity of the galaxy, low brightness and high accretion rate.
