Monday, May 30, 2005
Iron Age
NASA says that most of the iron in ancient galaxies anchored by supremassive black holes have been forged when the universe was still young.
NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory studied spectra from 300 supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies some 9 billion and 11 billion light years away. The peaks in the spectra produced by X-ray emission from iron atoms showed that approximately the same amount of iron was present in both sets of the holes. "This implies that most of the iron in the galaxies that contain these supermassive black holes was created before the Universe was about 2 billion years old, when galaxies were very young," NASA said. "The amount of iron around black holes has not changed significantly over the past 11 billion years."
The black hole in the center of our home galaxy holds a mass equal 4 million suns. It is estimated to be about 14 million miles (23 million kilometers) across, fitting within the orbit of Mercury around the sun. Since the Milky Way is estimated to be 13.6 billion years old, born just 200 million years after the "Dark Age" that succeeded the Big Bang, Chandra observartions may apply to our own iron. Something to think about when you next order spinach.
NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory studied spectra from 300 supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies some 9 billion and 11 billion light years away. The peaks in the spectra produced by X-ray emission from iron atoms showed that approximately the same amount of iron was present in both sets of the holes. "This implies that most of the iron in the galaxies that contain these supermassive black holes was created before the Universe was about 2 billion years old, when galaxies were very young," NASA said. "The amount of iron around black holes has not changed significantly over the past 11 billion years."
The black hole in the center of our home galaxy holds a mass equal 4 million suns. It is estimated to be about 14 million miles (23 million kilometers) across, fitting within the orbit of Mercury around the sun. Since the Milky Way is estimated to be 13.6 billion years old, born just 200 million years after the "Dark Age" that succeeded the Big Bang, Chandra observartions may apply to our own iron. Something to think about when you next order spinach.
