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Lopsided Stellar Disks Help Black Holes Guzzle Gas
from Science News
Astronomers have finally gotten a firmer grip on how supermassive black holes in the centers of most galaxies gobble up gas from their surroundings. In a new study, two astronomers neatly explain how stars drag swirling gases toward a galaxy's center, bringing them close enough that the black holes can suck them in like water down a bathtub drain.
Although supermassive black holes wield an enormous tug on their immediate surroundings, astronomers have been uncertain how these astrophysical beasts manage to pull in the large amounts of gas they absorb from their host galaxies. A key problem is that gas swirling rapidly around a black hole has enormous angular momentum, which creates a centrifugal force that can slow or halt the material from edging toward the abyss.
Generally, black holes easily swallow up gas that approaches to less than a third of a light-year from the galactic center, because the black hole's own magnetic field acts like a brake, slowing down the rotational motion of the gas and causing it to fall in.
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