Unprecedented view of supermassive black hole

An unprecedented view of the supermassive black hole could change our understanding of galaxies, researchers say

A new study confirms a unifying theory of supermassive black hole behavior and could help explain how galaxies form.

Supermassive black holes at the center of many galaxies might look more like pancakes than doughnuts,  pancakes smoking as the black holes at their center burn their inner edges.

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That’s how Université de la Côte d’Azur astronomer Romain Petrov described the findings of his colleagues in a new paper published Wednesday in Nature. It’s a finding that confirms, and extends, a long-held theory about active galactic nuclei, the extremely bright centers of some galaxies believed to be driven by supermassive black holes and could have implications for how we understand our own existence.

“The co-evolution between the black hole and the host galaxy — what was first, the black hole or the galaxy? —  has a strong impact on the evolution of the galaxy, including the formation of stars in that galaxy,” Dr. Petrov said. “A link in the chain of events that lead to the existence of people that can discuss these issues.”

Dr. Petrov and his colleagues used the Multi-AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment (MATISSE) instrument and the Very Large Telescope in Chile to make new observations of the galaxy Messier 77, a barred spiral galaxy about 47 million light-years from Earth.