Supermassive blackhole found without host galaxy!

[The Peon]

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1460730.htm

 

Could these make up the missing dark matter? I doubt it but still.. Some recalculations might need to be made.

[starbug1]

There is always the possibility that there are formations in the universe we haven't identified yet. Missing dark matter, maybe. Give those brilliant scientists more time!

[Martin]

hey Peon! thanks for bringing in this bit of news!

it is interesting and I hadnt seen anything about it.

after I read your post I located this letter in the current issue of

Nature journal

 

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7057/abs/nature04013.html

 

Letter

 

Nature 437, 381-384 (15 September 2005) | doi: 10.1038/nature04013

 

Discovery of a bright quasar without a massive host galaxy

 

Pierre Magain1, Géraldine Letawe1, Frédéric Courbin2, Pascale Jablonka2,3,4, Knud Jahnke5, Georges Meylan2 and Lutz Wisotzki5

 

"A quasar is thought to be powered by the infall of matter onto a supermassive black hole at the centre of a massive galaxy1, 2. Because the optical luminosity of quasars exceeds that of their host galaxy, disentangling the two components can be difficult. This led in the 1990s to the controversial claim of the discovery of 'naked' quasars3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Since then, the connection between quasars and galaxies has been well established8. Here we report the discovery of a quasar lying at the edge of a gas cloud, whose size is comparable to that of a small galaxy, but whose spectrum shows no evidence for stars. The gas in the cloud is excited by the quasar itself. If a host galaxy is present, it is at least six times fainter than would normally be expected8, 9 for such a bright quasar. The quasar is interacting dynamically with a neighbouring galaxy, whose gas might be feeding the black hole.

 

 

Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Allée du 6 Août, 17, Bât B5C, B?4000 Liège, Belgium

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Observatoire, CH?1290 Sauverny, Switzerland

Observatoire de l'Université de Genève, CH?1290 Sauverny, Switzerland

GEPI, UMR 8111, Observatoire de Paris, France

Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, D?14482 Potsdam, Germany

 

Received 23 March 2005; Accepted 29 June 2005"

 

to see the whole table of contents of the latest Nature:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7057/index.html

Nature homepage:

http://www.nature.com/index.html

[timo]

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1460730.htm

 

Could these make up the missing dark matter?

Afaik, dark matter is supposed to reside within or at the edges of galaxies to describe their internal movement (rotation of spiral galaxies).

The stuff nessecary for the theoretic models to fit the observations on the cosmic expansion is called dark energy. This, however, has very exotic properties (negative energy density ... or was it negative pressure?) and is therefore not likely to be explained by chunks of regular matter like black holes.

 

Disclaimer: I´m not an astrophysicist. Above is only what I think to remember from hearing a few talks about that topic.