After the Big Bang occurred, the universe was pretty dark due to the thick gas that had been churned up, trapping any light that ever was. When the universe began to expand, many millions of years later, it became transparent and began to fill itself with stars, planets, galaxies and other light-emitting objects. And that’s what we see today. But the big mystery lies in how it actually emerged from the dark into its light-filled state, and that’s what researchers from the University of Iowa set out to solve.
Their theory involved black holes that are found in the center of galaxies, throwing out matter so vicious that the cloudiness surrounding them was pierced, allowing light to escape as a result. The team came up with this theory after seeing the way in which ultraviolet light was escaping from a nearby galaxy. “The observations show the presence of very bright X-ray sources that are like accreting black holes,” confirmed Philip Kaaret, a professor at the University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy and corresponding author on the study. He also said that’s it’s possible the black hole is aiding in the escape of the ionizing radiation by creating winds. “This, black holes may have helped make the universe transparent,” says Karret.
The galaxy that Kaaret and colleagues focused on is called Tol 1247-232 and is around 600 million light years away. In May 2016, a single X-ray source was spotted emanating from Tol 1247-232 by the Earth-orbiting telescope called Chandra. Researchers first thought it was a star in the process of forming in this nearby galaxy, but on a second glance, they decided it was something else.
As Kaaret explained, “Stars don’t have changes in brightness. Our sun is a good example of that. To change in brightness, you have to be a small object, and that really narrows it down to a black hole.”
Black holes are notoriously difficult to study. This is partly because they have an immense gravitational pull that draws everything nearby allowing no light to escape. They’re also embedded deep in the cosmos. Even so, recent research has led astronomers to believe that jets of matter are shooting into the accelerated rotational energy of the black hole. “As matter falls into a black hole, it starts to spin and the rapid rotation pushes some fraction of the matter out,” says Kaaret. “They’re producing these strong winds that could be opening an escape route for ultraviolet light, which would help concrete this theory.” Next Kaaret would like to find more galaxies nearby that are also leaking ultraviolet light as well as take a look at Tol 1247-232 a little closer to further confirm his theory.
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