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Mysterious 'alignment' of black holes discovered by astronomers

The discovery could shed new light on the history and structure of the universe

Doug Bolton
Tuesday 26 April 2016 15:36 BST
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A Nasa image of a black hole and its jets
A Nasa image of a black hole and its jets

Astronomers have discovered an alignment between a number of gas fountains spewed out by supermassive black holes, possibly shedding new light on the underlying structure of the universe.

Supermassive black holes, often found at the centre of galaxies, regularly eject debris which falls into them, creating huge and super-fast jets of gas.

It seems like a chaotic process, which is why astronomers were so surprised to find around a dozen of these jets appear to be aligned with one another, despite being tens of millions of light years apart.

It could well be a coincidence, but it's a long shot - a paper on the discovery, written by Dr Russ Taylor and Preshanth Jagannathan and published in the Monthly Notices Letters of the Royal Astronomical Society, says the probability of this alignment being down to chance is "less than 0.1 per cent."

Instead, they believe it may be linked to the overarching structure of the universe, which was laid down early in its life.

Dr Taylor, from the University of Cape Town, said: "Since these black holes don't know about each other, or have any way of exchanging information or influencing each other directly over such vast scales, this spin alignment must have occurred during the formation of the galaxies in the early universe."

The idea of the universe being formed around a giant 'structure' is nothing new - scientists have observed 'filaments' since the 1980s, giant thread-like structures which span empty space.

Matter tends to gather around these threads, although it's not thought that galaxies are greatly influenced by the actions of their host filaments.

But if correct, Dr. Taylor's findings could turn this belief on its head, challenging existing theories about the history and structure of the universe and creating rich new ground for research.

It's not been proved yet, however. The alignment of the jets was only spotted accidentally, and projects are now underway to take a closer look at the galaxies and explore the idea further.

Dr Taylor said: "We're beginning to understand how the large-scale structure of the universe came about, starting from the Big Bang and growing as a result of disturbances in the early universe, to what we have today. And that helps us explore what the universe of tomorrow will be like."

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