Southampton Researchers Use High Energy X-Rays to Peer Beneath the Obscuring Skin of Growing Black Holes
Saturday, January 7, 2017 - 13:31
in Astronomy & Space
A black hole studied and discovered by Peter Boorman, PhD researcher at the University of Southampton, is so hidden that it requires highly sensitive observations in the highest energy X-rays to classify it as obscured. But they give themselves away when material they feed on emits high-energy X-rays that NASA's NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission can detect. That's how University of Southampton PhD researcher Peter Boorman used NuSTAR to recently identify a gas-enshrouded supermassive black holes located at the centres of nearby galaxy IC 3639 some 175 million light years from Earth.