Black holes may sport a luxurious head of 'hair' made up of ghostly, zero-energy particles, says a new hypothesis proposed by Stephen Hawking and other physicists.The new paper, which was published online Jan. 5 in the, proposes that at least some of the information devoured by a black hole is stored in these electric hairs.Still, the new proposal doesn't prove that all the information that enters a black hole is preserved.' The million dollar question is whether all the information is stored in this way, and we have made no claims about that,' said study author Andrew Strominger, a physicist at Harvard University in Massachusetts. 'It seems unlikely that the kind of hair that we described is rich enough to store all the information.' Black holesAccording to Einstein's theory of general relativity, are extremely dense celestial objects that warp space-time so strongly that no light or matter can escape their clutches. Some primordial black holes formed soon after the Big Bang and may be the size of a single atom yet as massive as a mountain, according to NASA.

Black Holes which are part of the four spirals of a galaxy have the unique ability to bridge huge distances unlike their normal counterparts, turning the Outer Rim into a black hole highway. Any hyper black hole will target a specific system all around the outer galactic shell and can bridge over 300.000 light-years towards the centre and over two million overall.

Others form as gigantic stars collapse in on themselves, while supermassive black holes lie at the hearts of almost all galaxies. In the 1960s, physicist John Wheeler and colleagues proposed that black holes 'have no hair,' a metaphor meaning that black holes were shorn of all complicated particularities. In Wheeler's formulation, all black holes were identical except for their spin, angular momentum and mass.Then, in the 1970s, proposed the notion now called Hawking radiation.

In this formulation, all black holes 'leak' mass in the form of ghostly quantum particles that escape over time. Eventually, Hawking radiation causes black holes to evaporate altogether, leaving a single, unique vacuum. The vacuums left by these black holes, according to the original theory, would be identical, and thus incapable of storing information about the objects from which they were formed, Strominger said.Since the Hawking radiation leaking from a black hole is completely random, that would mean black holes lose information over time, and there would be no way of knowing much about the celestial objects that formed the black holes. Yet that notion creates a paradox, because on the smallest scale, the laws of physics are completely reversible, meaning. In recent years, Hawking has walked back the notion of information loss and conceded that.Black hole 'snowflakes'In the past several years, Strominger has been dismantling some of these notions. First, he asked the question: What happens if you add a 'soft' photon, or a particle of light with no energy, to the vacuum left behind after a black hole evaporates?Though most people have never heard of soft photons, the particles are ubiquitous, Strominger said.

(Other particles, called soft gravitons, are hypothetical quantum particles that transmit gravity. Though they have never been detected, most physicists believe these particles exist and are also incredibly abundant, Strominger said). 'Every collision at the Large Hadron Collider produces an infinite number of soft photons and soft gravitons,' Strominger said. 'We're swimming in them all the time.' After working through the equations, he — together with Hawking and Malcolm Perry, who are both physicists at the University of Cambridge in England — found that the black hole vacuum would have the same energy but different angular momentum after the addition of a soft photon. That meant the vacuum state of an evaporated black hole is a kind of celestial snowflake, with its individual properties dependent on its origin and history.' Far from being a simple, vanilla object, it's like a large hard drive which can store essentially an infinite amount of information in the form of these zero-energy photons and gravitons,' Strominger told Live Science.The new work is an extension of a short paper Hawking put out in 2014, which argued that the, or the point of no return before an object would get swallowed into a black hole forever, may not be a fixed boundary.

The new paper posits that hairs of soft photons and gravitons fringe a black holes' event horizon.Information paradox standsThe problem is that this information is 'incredibly scrambled up,' so retrieving it from a black hole is akin to determining what someone tossed into a bonfire after it has burned up, Strominger said. Essentially, the new work is the black hole equivalent of using smoke and fire to figure out the identity of the original object that was burnt, he added.' It's not a final answer to the, but it does seem like a step in the right direction,' said Aidan Chatwin-Davies, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the study.While some of the information in a black hole may be contained in its hairy halo of soft photons and gravitons, not all of it necessarily resides there, he said.' If anything, it puts forward some new ideas for us to think about which could prove very helpful in understanding black holes and how they encode information,' Chatwin-Davies told Live Science.Follow Tia Ghose on. Follow Live Science, &.

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This is the first direct image taken of a supermassive black hole, located at the galactic core of. It shows a heated accretion ring orbiting the object at a mean separation of 350, or ten times larger than the orbit of around the Sun. The dark center is the event horizon and its shadow.A supermassive black hole ( SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of, containing a mass of the order of hundreds of thousands to billions of times the mass of the Sun. Black holes are a class of that have undergone, leaving behind regions of space from which nothing can escape, not even. Super time force game. Observational evidence indicates that nearly all large contain a supermassive black hole, located at the.

The, the supermassive black hole corresponds to the location of at the. Of onto supermassive black holes is the process responsible for powering and other types of. Contents.Description Supermassive black holes have properties that distinguish them from lower-mass classifications. First, the average of a SMBH (defined as the mass of the black hole divided by the volume within its ) can be less than the density of in the case of some SMBHs. This is because the Schwarzschild radius is directly to its.

Since the volume of a spherical object (such as the of a non-rotating black hole) is directly proportional to the cube of the radius, the density of a black hole is inversely proportional to the square of the mass, and thus higher mass black holes have lower. In addition, the in the vicinity of the are significantly weaker for supermassive black holes.

The tidal force on a body at the event horizon is likewise inversely proportional to the square of the mass: a person on the surface of the Earth and one at the event horizon of a 10 million black hole experience about the same tidal force between their head and feet. Unlike with, one would not experience until very deep into the black hole.Some astronomers have begun labeling black holes of at least 10 billion as ultramassive black holes. Most of these (such as ) are associated with exceptionally energetic quasars.History of research The story of how supermassive black holes were found began with the investigation by of the radio source in 1963. Initially this was thought to be a star, but the spectrum proved puzzling. It was determined to be hydrogen emission lines that had been, indicating the object was moving away from the Earth. Showed that the object was located several billion light-years away, and thus must be emitting the energy equivalent of hundreds of galaxies.

The rate of light variations of the source, dubbed a, or quasar, suggested the emitting region had a diameter of one or less. Four such sources had been identified by 1964.In 1963, and proposed the existence of hydrogen burning supermassive stars (SMS) as an explanation for the compact dimensions and high energy output of quasars. These would have a mass of about 10 5 – 10 9. However, noted stars above a certain critical mass are dynamically unstable and would collapse into a black hole, at least if they were non-rotating. Fowler then proposed that these supermassive stars would undergo a series of collapse and explosion oscillations, thereby explaining the energy output pattern. Appenzeller and Fricke (1972) built models of this behavior, but found that the resulting star would still undergo collapse, concluding that a non-rotating 0.75 ×10 6 M ☉ SMS 'cannot escape collapse to a black hole by burning its hydrogen through the '.and made the proposal in 1964 that matter falling onto a massive compact object would explain the properties of quasars.

It would require a mass of around 10 8 M ☉ to match the output of these objects. Noted in 1969 that the infalling gas would form a flat disk that spirals into the central '.

He noted that the relatively low output of nearby galactic cores implied these were old, inactive quasars. Meanwhile, in 1967, and suggested that nearly all sources of extra-galactic radio emission could be explained by a model in which particles are ejected from galaxies at; meaning they are moving near the.

Martin Ryle, Malcolm Longair, and then proposed in 1973 that the compact central nucleus could be the original energy source for these.and noted in 1970 that the large velocity dispersion of the stars in the nuclear region of could only be explained by a large mass concentration at the nucleus; larger than could be explained by ordinary stars. They showed that the behavior could be explained by a massive black hole with up to 10 10 M ☉, or a large number of smaller black holes with masses below 10 3 M ☉. Dynamical evidence for a massive dark object was found at the core of the elliptical galaxy in 1978, initially estimated at 5 ×10 9 M ☉. Discovery of similar behavior in other galaxies soon followed, including the in 1984 and the in 1988.Donald Lynden-Bell and hypothesized in 1971 that the center of the Milky Way galaxy would contain a massive black hole. Sagittarius A. was discovered and named on February 13 and 15, 1974, by astronomers Bruce Balick and Robert Brown using the of the. They discovered a radio source that emits; it was found to be dense and immobile because of its gravitation.

This was, therefore, the first indication that a supermassive black hole exists in the center of the Milky Way.The, launched in 1990, provided the resolution needed to perform more refined observations of galactic nuclei. In 1994 the on the Hubble was used to observe Messier 87, finding that ionized gas was orbiting the central part of the nucleus at a velocity of ±500 km/s. The data indicated a concentrated mass of (2.4 ±0.7) ×10 9 M ☉ lay within a 0.25 span, providing strong evidence of a supermassive black hole. Using the to observe, Miyoshi et al. (1995) were able to demonstrate that the emission from an H 2O in this galaxy came from a gaseous disk in the nucleus that orbited a concentrated mass of 3.6 ×10 7 M ☉, which was constrained to a radius of 0.13. They noted that a swarm of solar mass black holes within a radius this small would not survive for long without undergoing collisions, making a supermassive black hole the sole viable candidate.On April 10, 2019, the project released the first image of a black hole, in the center of the galaxy.In February 2020, astronomers reported that a cavity in the, originating from a supermassive black hole, is a result of the largest known explosion in the since the.In March 2020, astronomers proposed a way of better seeing more of the rings in the first black hole image.

Formation. An artist's conception of a supermassive black hole surrounded by an accretion disk and emitting a relativistic jetThe origin of supermassive black holes remains an open field of research. Astrophysicists agree that once a black hole is in place in the center of a galaxy, it can grow by of matter and by merging with other black holes. There are, however, several hypotheses for the formation mechanisms and initial masses of the progenitors, or 'seeds', of supermassive black holes.One hypothesis is that the seeds are black holes of tens or perhaps hundreds of solar masses that are left behind by the explosions of massive stars and grow by accretion of matter. Another model hypothesizes that before the first stars, large gas clouds could collapse into a ', which would in turn collapse into a black hole of around 20 M ☉.

These stars may have also been formed by drawing in enormous amounts of gas by gravity, which would then produce supermassive stars with tens of thousands of solar masses. The 'quasi-star' becomes unstable to radial perturbations because of electron-positron pair production in its core and could collapse directly into a black hole without a explosion (which would eject most of its mass, preventing the black hole from growing as fast).

Given sufficient mass nearby, the black hole could accrete to become an and possibly a SMBH if the accretion rate persists. Artist's illustration of galaxy with jets from a supermassive black hole.Another model involves a dense stellar cluster undergoing core-collapse as the negative heat capacity of the system drives the in the core to speeds. Finally, could have been produced directly from external pressure in the first moments after the. These primordial black holes would then have more time than any of the above models to accrete, allowing them sufficient time to reach supermassive sizes.

Formation of black holes from the deaths of the first stars has been extensively studied and corroborated by observations. The other models for black hole formation listed above are theoretical.The difficulty in forming a supermassive black hole resides in the need for enough matter to be in a small enough volume. This matter needs to have very little angular momentum in order for this to happen. Normally, the process of accretion involves transporting a large initial endowment of angular momentum outwards, and this appears to be the limiting factor in black hole growth. This is a major component of the theory of.

Gas accretion is the most efficient and also the most conspicuous way in which black holes grow. The majority of the mass growth of supermassive black holes is thought to occur through episodes of rapid gas accretion, which are observable as or quasars. Observations reveal that quasars were much more frequent when the Universe was younger, indicating that supermassive black holes formed and grew early. A major constraining factor for theories of supermassive black hole formation is the observation of distant luminous quasars, which indicate that supermassive black holes of billions of solar masses had already formed when the Universe was less than one billion years old. This suggests that supermassive black holes arose very early in the Universe, inside the first massive galaxies. Artist's impression of stars born in winds from supermassive black holes.A vacancy exists in the observed mass distribution of black holes. Black holes that spawn from dying stars have masses 5–80 M ☉.

The minimal supermassive black hole is approximately a hundred thousand solar masses. Mass scales between these ranges are dubbed intermediate-mass black holes. Such a gap suggests a different formation process. However, some models suggest that (ULXs) may be black holes from this missing group.There is, however, an upper limit to how large supermassive black holes can grow. Simulation of a side view of black hole with transparent toroidal ring of ionised matter according to a proposed model for.

This image shows the result of bending of light from behind the black hole, and it also shows the asymmetry arising by the from the extremely high orbital speed of the matter in the ring.Some of the best evidence for the presence of black holes is provided by the whereby light from nearby orbiting matter is red-shifted when receding and blue-shifted when advancing. For matter very close to a black hole the orbital speed must be comparable with the speed of light, so receding matter will appear very faint compared with advancing matter, which means that systems with intrinsically symmetric discs and rings will acquire a highly asymmetric visual appearance.

This effect has been allowed for in modern computer generated images such as the example presented here, based on a plausible model for the supermassive black hole in at the centre of our own galaxy. However the resolution provided by presently available telescope technology is still insufficient to confirm such predictions directly.What already has been observed directly in many systems are the lower non-relativistic velocities of matter orbiting further out from what are presumed to be black holes. Direct Doppler measures of water surrounding the of nearby galaxies have revealed a very fast, only possible with a high concentration of matter in the center.

Currently, the only known objects that can pack enough matter in such a small space are black holes, or things that will evolve into black holes within astrophysically short timescales. For farther away, the width of broad spectral lines can be used to probe the gas orbiting near the event horizon. The technique of uses variability of these lines to measure the mass and perhaps the spin of the black hole that powers active galaxies.In the Milky Way. Artist's impression of a supermassive black hole tearing apart a star. Below: supermassive black hole devouring a star in galaxy – X-ray (left) and optical (right).Unambiguous dynamical evidence for supermassive black holes exists only in a handful of galaxies; these include the Milky Way, the galaxies and, and a few galaxies beyond the Local Group, e.g. In these galaxies, the mean square (or rms) velocities of the stars or gas rises proportionally to 1/ r near the center, indicating a central point mass. In all other galaxies observed to date, the rms velocities are flat, or even falling, toward the center, making it impossible to state with certainty that a supermassive black hole is present.

Nevertheless, it is commonly accepted that the center of nearly every galaxy contains a supermassive black hole. The reason for this assumption is the, a tight (low scatter) relation between the mass of the hole in the 10 or so galaxies with secure detections, and the velocity dispersion of the stars in the bulges of those galaxies. This correlation, although based on just a handful of galaxies, suggests to many astronomers a strong connection between the formation of the black hole and the galaxy itself. Photograph of the 4,400 light-year long of, which is matter being ejected by the 6.4 ×10 9 M ☉ supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxyThe nearby Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light-years away, contains a (1.1– 2.3) ×10 8 (110–230 million) M ☉ central black hole, significantly larger than the Milky Way's. The largest supermassive black hole in the Milky Way's vicinity appears to be that of, at a mass of (6.4 ±0.5) ×10 9 (c. 6.4 billion) M ☉ at a distance of 53.5 million light-years. The supergiant elliptical galaxy, at a distance of 336 million light-years away in the constellation, contains a black hole measured to be 2.1 ×10 10 (21 billion) M ☉.Masses of black holes in quasars can be estimated via indirect methods that are subject to substantial uncertainty.

The quasar is an example of an object with an extremely large black hole, estimated at 6.6 ×10 10 (66 billion) M ☉. Its is 2.219. Other examples of quasars with large estimated black hole masses are the hyperluminous quasar, with an estimated mass of 2.3 ×10 10 (23 billion) M ☉, and the quasar, with a mass of 4.0 ×10 10 (40 billion) M ☉, or 10,000 times the mass of the black hole at the Milky Way Galactic Center.Some galaxies, such as the galaxy, appear to have two supermassive black holes at their centers, forming a. If they collided, the event would create strong. Binary supermassive black holes are believed to be a common consequence of.

The binary pair in, 3.5 billion light-years away, contains the most massive black hole in a pair, with a mass estimated at 18 billion M ☉.In 2011, a super-massive black hole was discovered in the dwarf galaxy, which has no bulge. The precise implications for this discovery on black hole formation are unknown, but may indicate that black holes formed before bulges.On March 28, 2011, a supermassive black hole was seen tearing a mid-size star apart. That is the only likely explanation of the observations that day of sudden X-ray radiation and the follow-up broad-band observations. The source was previously an inactive galactic nucleus, and from study of the outburst the galactic nucleus is estimated to be a SMBH with mass of the order of a million solar masses. This rare event is assumed to be a outflow (material being emitted in a jet at a significant fraction of the speed of light) from a star by the SMBH.

A significant fraction of a solar mass of material is expected to have accreted onto the SMBH. Subsequent long-term observation will allow this assumption to be confirmed if the emission from the jet decays at the expected rate for mass accretion onto a SMBH. A gas cloud with several times the mass of the Earth is accelerating towards a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.In 2012, astronomers reported an unusually large mass of approximately 17 billion M ☉ for the black hole in the compact, which lies 220 million light-years away in the constellation. The putative black hole has approximately 59 percent of the mass of the bulge of this lenticular galaxy (14 percent of the total stellar mass of the galaxy). Another study reached a very different conclusion: this black hole is not particularly overmassive, estimated at between 2 and 5 billion M ☉ with 5 billion M ☉ being the most likely value. On February 28, 2013 astronomers reported on the use of the satellite to accurately measure the spin of a supermassive black hole for the first time, in, reporting that the event horizon was spinning at almost the speed of light. Hubble view of a supermassive black hole 'burping'.In September 2014, data from different X-ray telescopes has shown that the extremely small, dense, hosts a 20 million solar mass black hole at its center, accounting for more than 10% of the total mass of the galaxy.

The discovery is quite surprising, since the black hole is five times more massive than the Milky Way's black hole despite the galaxy being less than five-thousandths the mass of the Milky Way.Some galaxies, however, lack any supermassive black holes in their centers. Although most galaxies with no supermassive black holes are very small, dwarf galaxies, one discovery remains mysterious: The supergiant elliptical cD galaxy has not been found to contain an active supermassive black hole, despite the galaxy being one of the largest galaxies known; ten times the size and one thousand times the mass of the Milky Way. Since a supermassive black hole will only be visible while it is accreting, a supermassive black hole can be nearly invisible, except in its effects on stellar orbits.In December 2017, astronomers reported the detection of the most distant quasar currently known, containing the most distant supermassive black hole, at a reported of z = 7.54, surpassing the redshift of 7 for the previously known most distant quasar.

Hawking radiation. Main article:Hawking radiation is that is predicted to be released by, due to quantum effects near the. This radiation reduces the mass and energy of black holes, causing them to shrink and ultimately vanish. If black holes evaporate via, a supermassive black hole with a mass of 10 11 (100 billion) M ☉ will evaporate in around 2×10 100 years. Some monster black holes in the universe are predicted to continue to grow up to perhaps 10 14 M ☉ during the collapse of superclusters of galaxies. Even these would evaporate over a timescale of up to 10 106 years. See also.