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Recent observations from the Hubble Space Telescope space telescope showed astronomers a completely new phenomenon. It is a huge shadow extending tens of thousands of light years and emanating from the core of the galaxy IC 5063, the site of a supermassive black hole, writes the Science Alert portal.
This is a phenomenon that you may have observed here, here on Earth, only in a slightly different form. Crepuscular rays, or otherwise called divine rays, arise when the sun is below the horizon and clouds or mountains they only partially block the light. The result is a brilliant beam of light.
In the case of a black hole, it is somewhat the opposite and we perceive its shadow. At the same time, astronomers claim that the scale of this shadow is much larger. It can be up to 36,000 light years in each direction. This galaxy is 156 million light years away and has been observed to have an active galactic core. In other words, there is currently a black hole in the center of the galaxy it absorbs the matter that surrounds it.
It is true that the black hole itself does not emit lightbut the forces present heat the material in the accretion disk to incredibly high temperatures. As a result, the core of the galaxy literally shines throughout the universe. Scientists believe something is blocking this light and most likely space dust.
“We believe we have been able to find some evidence to suggest that cosmic dust is likely to be found throughout the galaxy, blocking light from the black hole’s accretion disk,” said astronomer Peter Maksym of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
At the same time, scientists have uncovered evidence they speak of the recent merger of IC 5063 with another galaxy. This is why they believe such a merger could spread dust across the galaxy.
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