Whatever occurs there stays there, much to the chagrin of astrophysicists who are attempting to understand how, when, and why black holes emerge and expand, despite the seeming utter dissimilarity between black holes and Las Vegas.
The border beyond which nothing, not even matter, light, or information, can travel is known as the event horizon, and it is a mysterious, invisible layer that surrounds black holes. The event horizon completely obliterates any traces of the black hole’s history.
According to Peter Behroozi, an associate professor at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory and a project researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, “because of these physical facts, it had been thought impossible to measure how black holes formed.”
With the help of machine learning and powerful computers, Behroozi and Steward doctoral student Haowen Zhang successfully rebuilt the growth histories of black holes, removing the event boundaries to reveal what lies beyond.
The findings of simulating millions of artificial “universes” revealed that supermassive black holes expanded at a rate equal to that of their host galaxies. For 20 years, scientists have had a theory about this, but up until lately, they haven’t been able to demonstrate it. The results of the team’s study were published in a piece for Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
To read our blog on “First time, a dormant black hole has been found outside of our galaxy,” click here.
