Many galaxies have black holes at its center. The Milky Way is said to have its own massive black hole at its center. It is rare though that a galaxy has two massive black holes, yet scientists think that one galaxy might have that.
Markarian 1018 is a galaxy that is very far from us. It is some 555 million light years away and unlikely to affect our galaxy at some point in time. However astronomers have observed that a strange event is happening to it.
Observations on Markarian 1018 has shown the galaxy to be dimming. As it is, the galaxy is already notable since it is shining brightly and is known as an active galaxy, according to Science Alert. Astronomers theorize that a supermassive black hole is at its center. Black holes take up matter near it and when it does, the matter around it emit radioactive energy and even light, making it bright. This seems to be why Markarian 1018 is bright.
This process of matter glowing and emitting energy while being dragged into a black hole is known as accretion. This process produces some of the brightest galaxies such as quasars and Seyfert galaxies.
Scientists observing the galaxy from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) last year noted that Markarian 1018 has become dimmer, as E! Scientific News reports. The bright light they had seen before has disappeared from it. Rebecca McElroy, lead researcher from the University of Sydney, Australia said that they were amazed by this change in the galaxy.
Though researchers have yet to exactly know what has caused the change, many think that it could be because of another massive black hole taking up material from the other one. Two black holes in the center of a galaxy isn't common though, and this makes Markarian 1018 unique. The theory researchers have is that Markarian 1018 might have merged with another active galaxy which has its own massive black hole.
Research on the galaxy will continue using the Hubble telescope and Chandra observatory. Though having two galaxies merge might be the likeliest explanation, other possibilities aren't being ruled out yet.
"The team is really keen on finding out more about the physics that drive behavior of this unusual galaxy," McElroy says.
iTechPost has more space news, such as the Earth being more vulnerable to an asteroid strike.
