Galactic Mysteries: Unveiling Supermassive Black Holes and the Secrets of Comet 3I Atlas

This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, Episode four, for broadcasts on the ninth of January twenty twenty six. Coming up on space Time, do all galaxies have super massive black holes that the centers still no evidence of? Ailing intelligence on the Comet three I atlas and a new study testing how rocket plumes interact with a lunar surface. All that and more coming up on space Time. Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary. A new study suggests that most smaller galaxies may not have a super massive black hole in their center. For decades now, astronomers believe that most, if not all, galaxies feature a central super massive black hole around which the entire galaxy revolve, But this new study using NASA's Chandra X ray observatory has concluded that most smaller galaxies don't seem to have a course super massive black hole. The findings, reported in the Astrophysical Journal are based on data from over sixteen hundred galaxies collected over two decades using Chandra. The authors looked at galaxies ranging in size for more than ten times the mass of the Milky Way, down to dwarf galaxies, which have still a mass is less than just a few percent that of our home galaxy. They found that only about thirty percent of dwarf galaxies are likely to contain a super massive black hole. The studies lead author Franjau from the University of Michigan in ann Aba, says it's important to get an accurate black hole headcount for these smaller galaxies, and it's more than just bookkeeping. He says, the study gives clues about how super massive black holes are formed. As material falls into a black hole, it's heated by friction and powerful gravitational forces, producing X rays. Many of the massive galaxies in the studyin bright X ray sources at the centers a clear signature of a super massive black hole in their core. Shallon colleagues found that more than ninety percent of massive galaxies, including those with masses the size of the Milky Way, contained super massive black holes. However, the authors also found that smaller galaxies in the study usually did not have these unambiguous black hole signatures. In fact, galaxies with less than three billion times the mass of the Sun, which is about the same mass as the large Magellanic Cloud and neighboring satellite dwarf galaxy to the Milky way usually don't contain bright X ray sources at their centers. Now, there are two possible explanations for this lack of X ray source. The first is that the fraction of galaxies containing super massive black holes is much lower in these smaller galaxies, and the second is that the amount of X ray energy being produced by matter falling onto these small galaxy super massive black holes is so faint Chandra simply couldn't detect it. Now, the authors think that, based on their analysis of the Chandra data, the conclusion is that they really there are fewer black holes in these smaller galaxies compared to their larger counterparts. To reach their conclusion, gar and Collects considered both possibilities for a lack of X ray sources in small galaxies in their large Chandra sample. The amount of material falling onto the accretion disc of a black hole determines how bright or faint they are in X rays. Because smaller black holes are expected to pull in less gas anyway than larger ones, they should have fainter X rays and are therefore often not detectable. However, the authors found that an additional deficit of X ray sources was seen in less massive galaxies beyond the expected decline of decreases in the amount of gas falling inwards. This additional deficit can be accounted for if many of the low mass galaxies simply don't have any black holes at their centers. The findings have important implications for understanding how supermassive black holes are formed. Right now, there are two primary hypotheses to try and explain how supermassive black holes are created. The first involves giant clouds of gas collapsing directly to form a super massive black hole. These contain thousands to billions of times the mass of the Sun. The other idea is that super massive black holes instead are created by the merger of many smaller stellar mass black holes, which themselves are created through the collapse and merger of stars. The problem there is we see super massive black holes at the very beginning of the universe, from a time when not enough stellar mass black holes could have merged together to form them. So this new study further supports the theory that giant black holes are born already weighing several thousand times the mass of the Sun. If the other idea were true, one would have expected smaller galaxies to likely have the same fraction of black holes as their larger counterparts, and they don't. This is space time still to come. Still no evidence of alien signatures from the interstellar comet three eye Atlas, and NASA begins new tests on how rocket plumes interact with the lunar surface. All that and more still to come on space time. Well, this is the silly season for news, and so those wacky claims that the interstellar comet threat Aalyst could be an alien's spacecraft aren't going away. Since the space rock was first detected back on July the first last year, astronomers have been studying it in great detail. You see, it's only the third interstellar visitor identified in our Solar System. The first was one iro Maumau, a long, thin, cigar shaped asteroid detected back in twenty seventeen just as it was leaving the Solar System. It had a reddish hue like many Kyperbold objects, and it lacked the traditional cometary coma and tail, But it did display an unexpected non gravitational acceleration as that lift the Solar System that led to claims ranging from natural phenomena like cosmic rays bombarding the asteroid and really seen trapped hydrogen IS's gas to explain the push right through the more shall we say, speculative claims of alien technology, often by the same characters making these latest claims about three Eye Outlas. The second confirmed interstellar visitor was the comet two I BORISEV, which passed through our Solar system in twenty nineteen. It turned out to be surprisingly similar to our own Solar systems commets, but with high levels of carbon monoxide, suggesting formation in a dense, pristine environment before being flung into interstellar space and eventually making its way into our neighborhood. There have undoubtedly been many other interstellar visitors, but it's only now that we've gotten really good at identifying them, And of course, now there's three Eye Outlass. Everyone from publicity seeking scientists ambulance chasing reporters looking for clickbait have pounced on allegedly anomalous data, claiming to show strange happenings emanating from three I Outlasts and suggesting that it must mean its evidence of technologically advanced alien civilizations from beyond our solars System. Now we've already covered all this previously on Space Time showing how this comet is behaving exactly is what one would expect for an object on the hyperbolic orbit originating in another star system. It's unusual chemicals and the timing of their sublimational releases are caused by the chemical composition of the star system it originated from and so would be expected to be different from ours, and its trajectory is exactly as expected for a space rock encountering the gravitational pull of our Sun after traveling in that specific direction. Recent changes in its trajectory are not caused by alien rocket thrusters, but the release of gases from inside the comet due to heading from the Sun, which are then acting as thrust So why we were hashing all this well, A new study has just been released which has been reported on the pre press physics website archive dot org, which is saying basically the same sort of stuff we did. The new findings are based on observations by the one hundred meter Green Bank radio telescope in western Virginia that were made part of the Breakthrough Listen program, which is specifically designed to look for signs of alien life. The data was collected on December the eighteenth that's the day before the comet met its closest approach to the Earth. Scientists looked at four key radio bands covering the one to twelve gigahertz range right around the time of the comet's closest approach. Their search picked up some four hundred and seventy one thousand candidate signals that then filtered those down to just nine candidate events, all of which were found becaused by radio frequency interference as they also appeared in off target scans or non contaminants as well as Greenbank. Multiple other astronomical telescopes and observatories have taken data on Comet throughout Atlas at various wavelength bands including radio, infrared, X ray, and optical, all of which have been carefully analyzed by hundreds of scientists and according to SETI the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, none of these observations, absolutely none have resulted in any evidence of alien technological SET signatures. This is space time still to come. That has begun using a new camera system to test how rocket plumes affect the lunar regolith, and later in the science report, a new study has shown that dog ownership could result in the strongest sense of community. All that and more still to come on space time that has begun using a new camera system to study how rocket plumes affect lunar regolith, the rocks and dust that blankets the lunar surface. The data will help scientists better understand the hazards that may occur when the lunar lander's engine plumes blast away at moondust, soil, and rocks. The data will also be used by NASA's commercial partners as they develop their own landing systems to safely transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon's surface and back again. Beginning with the Atomis three mission to better understand the science of lunar landings, scientists from NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia initiated a series of plume service interaction tests inside a massive sixty foot spherical vacuum chamber. NASAs Ashley Kazun, who led the testing, says these plume surface interaction ground tests are the most complex of their kind to be undertaken in a vacuum chamber. The idea is to see how much of the debris kicked up by a rocket plume exhaust ends up hitting the landing vehicle when nearby lunar rovers or other equipments. Kazoun says understanding these physics is pivotal to ensuring crew safety and mission success. The campaign, which will run right through the early part of twenty twenty six, should provide an absolute treasure trove of data that researchers will be able to use to improve predictive models and influence the design of future space hardware. Kazoon's team are testing two types of propulsion systems in the vacuum sphere. The first round of tests using ethane plume simulation system designed by NASA Stata Space Center in Mississippi. The ethane system generates a maximum one hundred pounds of thrust after completing the ethane tests. The second round of tests will involve a fourteen inch three D printed hybrid rocket motor, which was developed by the Utah State University and tested at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It produces around thirty five pounds of thrust, igniting both solid propellent and the stream of gaseous oxygen to create a hot, powerful stream of rocket exhaust simulating a real rocket engine. But at smaller scale. The researchers will be testing both types of propulsion systems at various heights, firing them into a roughly six and a half foot diameter one foot deep bin of simulated lunar regolith called black Point one, which is jagged cohesive particles similar to real lunar regolith. A number of different instruments, including a version of the camera system that imaged the plumes surface interaction during the Blue Ghost lunar landing last year, will capture data in imagery from the tests, which will last about six seconds each. The instruments will measure crater fourtion, speed and angle of ejective particles, and the shapes of the engine plumes. Kazoom says this test campaign will be fun more than just a one shot Moon specific thing. The entire operations module by design, and so it can prepare NASA for emissions to Mass as well. The lunar regular simulant can be replaced with mass simulant, which be more sand like, and pieces of hardware and instrumentation can all be unbolted and replaced the better represent future marslanders. Kazun says, rather than take the vacuum s fee down to really low pressure like on the Moon. It can be adjusted to a slightly higher pressure that simulates the atmosphere on the red planet mass. Instead, when we go back to the Moon with the HLS, or Human Landing System's program, we're going with commercial partners this time, and we're taking vehicles that are much larger and much more powerful than the vehicles that we flow to the Moon for Apollo. We're going to simulate what happens when you take a rocket engine really close as if you were landing on the surface of the Moon. So we're going to conduct testing under reduced atmosphere conditions to be as moon like as possible. We're going to simulate lunar descent engines using a couple different approaches, and we're going to impinge those rocket exhaust plumes onto some simulated mounder. We want to understand how a creator forms underneath the vehicle and as well as what we call ejectas. So where does all of the lunar regular that we've moved with that rocket engine? Where does it go? Does it hit our vehicle, does it hit other assets that are near us payloads? How does that impact science? How do we plan what we do on the surface. All those types of things are what data from this test will help inform. That's actually claison from messa's Langley Research Center Inhampton, Virginia, and this space time and time that to take another brief look at some of the other stories making news and science this week with the Science Report, a new study warns that microplastics could be fueling neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The findings, reported in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, highlighted five ways microplastics can trigger inflammation and damage the human brain. These include triggering immune cell activity, generating oxidative stress, disrupting the blood brain barrier, impairing mitochondria, and damaging neurons. Native Australian animals range from high hopping kangaroos to fast running emuse but clever little betons also have a special ability to find an ether the food they love. Scientists at Flinders University have discovered the secrets behind a superpower for these tiny relatives of kangaroos, which allows them to crack open seeds that would break the jaws of most animals. Betongs have specially ad apted jaws to crack open hard shells. Burrowing betons have short snouts for leverage, while bush tail betons have reinforced skulls and powerful premolars. Both types find seeds by smelling and digging, often bearing them first, which can help pre crack them as they try out. Then they use their teeth, together with manipulation from their four pores, to access the kernels inside. The findings that reported in the Zoological Journal of the Line in Society are designed to help conservation efforts, including finding suitable locations to reinforce populations severely impacted by habitat loss. A new study has shown that dog ownership could result in a strongest sense of community. The findings reported in the journal plus one, involved social surveys of three hundred and seventy seven people in Tokyo. The authors found that dog ownership was associated with an increase in anchored personal relationships, a type of relationship that revolves around a shared time, place, and activity, such as walking around the block or visiting the dog park. The steady found these were more likely to have a bigger impact on a sense of community than friendships, which the authors say maybe because people seen walking their dogs are more likely to be residents of the same neighborhood. Well, friendships are often formed for reasons other than living close by. Well, it looks like all those perset Christmas Boxing Day cells have now reached the supernatural community. Despite all of their clairvoyants and fortune telling abilities, it looks like they couldn't foresee the surplus of ghost hunting equipment and other supernatural paraphernalia they've got left in stock following the holidays. Skeptics timendum says, if you ever wanted to start up your own ghost hunting business, now's the time because there are bargains to be had and you certainly will. Be dowsing rods. I'd hate tree and want to recommend that anyone shelves out their harder and money. I'm buying some dowsing rods where there's one particular feat that are cropped up, which is two rods. There's basically two wooden handles that are drilled out through the middle and then a bent middle rod that goes through the handles then out at an angle, and you've got a little bit to keep things in and all sorts of stuff like that. Interestingly, water witching. They describe that they also can be user for finding ghosts all sorts of things and of course mining surveying that sort of stuff. And they were selling for I think as American about seventeen dollars, so now they dropped to seven dollars. Because you can make your own. Just get a couple of bits of pipe, a bit of PBC pipe. It takes some cave, hang a bended and stick it through the one the short end through the pipe, and then after you go because the cheapest one is by it's getting a forked stick. You go down to the fork stick. There's some people said there has to be a certain sort of tree, a U tree or something like that. I don't know how many W trees they are in your neighborhoods, but I mean, honestly, it's probably just as good as anything else. Yeah, So there's all sort of gear. You've got all the online shops to get your electromagnetic frequency meters and things, which is normally used for electronic sort of things that you can use. There's also the radio scanners, which is the things you can set to sort of zip through all the channels under radio frequencies and you'll hear noises and things because you can set the level zipping. So if you make it fast enough, you really can't get a clear picture of all the words that are used, but you'll definitely get some words as a flip spot past the channels, and that makes it sound more intriguing. If you have it on slow, you get to hear more of the words that you realize it's just someone's getting a recifee for pumpkin soup or something, right, But if we go through it quickly, it sounds very impressive. You can get those and because all sorts of things can get apps to your phones to find the goes. Most of these things when you use them in a ghost hunting these electronic things, the EMF means some of them are picking up your phone and all sorts of electrical disservices from all sorts of things that people carry. They might even be cross pollinating between different ghost hunting equipment. You can ask it yourself quite easily. You don't have to hire in a provis it. You can get all sorts of gear. It's just as effective as a bit of stick or the plumbbob or something. Off you go. That's the Skeptics, Tremendum, and this space Time and that's the show for now. 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