Quasars/Supermassive black holes as dust/gem generators

[docm]

Link....<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>Astronomers Find Dust in the Wind of Black Holes<br /><br /><i>The hit song that proclaimed, "All we are is dust in the wind," may have some cosmic truth to it. New findings from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that space dust – the same stuff that makes up living creatures and planets – was manufactured in large quantities in the winds of black holes that populated our early universe.</i></b><br /><br />The findings are a significant new clue in an unsolved mystery: where did all the dust in the young universe originate? <br /><br />"We were surprised to find what appears to be freshly made dust entrained in the winds that blow away from supermassive black holes," said Ciska Markwick-Kemper of the University of Manchester, U.K. Markwick-Kemper is lead author of a new paper appearing in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters. "This could explain where the dust came from that was needed to make the first generations of stars in the early universe." <br /> /> <br />They found a mix of the ingredients that make up glass, sand, marble and even rubies and sapphires. While the mineral constituting glass was expected, the minerals for sand, marble and rubies were a surprise. Why? These minerals are not typically detected floating around galaxies, suggesting they could have been freshly formed in the winds rushing away from the quasar.<br /><br />For instance, the ingredient that makes up sand, crystalline silicate, doesn't survive for long free-floating in space. Radiation from stars zaps the minerals back to an amorphous, glass-like state. The presence of crystalline silicate therefore suggests something – possibly the quasars winds – is churning out the newly made substance.<br /><br />Markwick-Kemper and her team say the case of the missing dust is not firmly shut. They hope to study more quasars for fur</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

hat has appeared as a mild-mannered elliptical galaxy in previous studies is revealing its wild side in new images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble photos show shells of stars around a bright quasar, known as MC2 1635+119, which dominates the center of the galaxy. The shells' presence indicates a titanic clash with another galaxy in the recent past.<br /><br />The new Hubble observations reveal at least five inner shells and additional debris traveling away from the galaxy's center. The shells, which sparkle with stars, resemble ripples forming in a pond when a stone is tossed in. They formed when tidal forces shred a galaxy during collision. Some of the galaxy's stars were swept up in the elliptical galaxy's gravitational field, creating the outward-moving shells. The farthest shell is about 40,000 light-years away from the center. <br /><br />"This is the most spectacular shell galaxy seen at this distance," said team member Francois Schweizer of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadenahttp://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6164

 

[tom_hobbes]

Another interesting article:<br /><br /><b>Colossal Winds of Change</b><br /><br />By Phil Berardelli, ScienceNOW.<br /><br />For the first time, astronomers have observed titanic tornadoes emerging from a supermassive black hole. The intense winds--theoretical until now--blow with such force that they influence the shape of the surrounding galaxy. The find could contribute new insights to theories about the evolution of the early universe.<br /><br />To make the observation, a team of astronomers from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York state, along with colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, studied polarized light emanating from the known active center of galaxy PG 1700+158, located about 3 billion light-years away. Black holes whip out superheated gas from their accretion disks--pulled together from material in surrounding space by their massive gravity--at such temperatures that the resulting light can outshine entire galaxies. Just as a good pair of sunglasses eliminates glare, interstellar dust can polarize the light. This allowed the astronomers to break down the light into its constituent colors, which revealed subtle shifts in its wavelengths. The team interpreted those shifts as the effect of cyclonic winds moving above and below the black hole at speeds of about 4000 kilometers per second, tens of thousands of times stronger than the most intense cyclones on Earth.<br /><br />The influence of such winds extends well beyond the galaxy, says astronomer and lead author Stuart Young, who along with colleagues reports the findings in the 1 November issue of Nature.<br /><br />http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org:80/cgi/content/full/2007/1102/1?etoc <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Well, if you consider it, it's actually fairly straightforward. A Singularity, particularly a low-mass one, has an extreme gravity gradient, eg a highly stressed spacetime metric.<br /><br />Gas and dust are caught in the accretion disc, and are then subjected to those stresses. Pressure/temperature/gravity must all play an effect on that material, changing it, reforming it.<br /><br />So when some gets blown off, for whatever reason (polar jets, perturbations, whatever), it is now new materials. In fact - just a guess - but in the future, I'm certain we'll find other elements being expelled from Singularities as well. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Singularity of low mass!New term.

 

[yevaud]

Not new at all, Alok. Singularities range from a few Solar Masses to Supermassive. One might very easily then say that a 4-solar mass Singularity is of "low mass," compared to one of a million solar masses.<br /><br />At any rate, I was considering the gravity gradient and it's effect on random material caught within it, and I wanted a steep one. Hence, a "low-mass Singularity," as the gradient is very steep indeed. Many stresses. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[tom_hobbes]

I think he may have been enjoying the incongruity.<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

It does sound like an Oxymoron, yeah. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>