Supermassive Black Hole, May Pose Threat to Earth.
Scientists have reclassified a nearby galaxy
after discovering that it contains a supermassive
black hole facing our own solar system.
'New York Post' reports that the Royal Astronomical
Society began studying the PBC J2333.9-2343
galaxy after it "showed peculiar properties.".
Our hypothesis was that the relativistic
jet of its supermassive black hole had
changed its direction, and to confirm
that idea we had to carry out
a lot of observations, Dr. Lorena Hernández-García, Lead author of the paper and researcher at the Millenium Institute of Astrophysics, via 'New York Post'.
The fact that we see the nucleus is
not feeding the lobes anymore means
that they are very old. They are the relics
of past activity, whereas the structures
located closer to the nucleus represent
younger and active jets, Dr. Lorena Hernández-García, Lead author of the paper and researcher at the Millenium Institute of Astrophysics, via 'New York Post'.
The galaxy, approximately 657 million light-years away, was initially considered a radio galaxy. However, scientists
noticed that it had rotated 90 degrees to face Earth.
The massive galaxy spans nearly
4 million light-years across, almost 40 times
larger than our own Milky Way galaxy.
'New York Post' reports that while it remains
unknown what caused the galaxy to change directions, some have speculated that it could have been a collision with another galaxy.
It also remains undetermined
how the black hole may
impact our galaxy.
'New York Post' reports that the newly
classified galaxy is just one of the space
threats currently facing the Earth.
New data has revealed three
near-Earth asteroids that could
pose a serious threat to Earth. .
Our twilight survey is scouring
the area within the orbits of Earth
and Venus for asteroids. So far we
have found two large near-Earth
asteroids that are about 1 kilometer
across, a size that we call planet killers, Scott Sheppard, The paper’s lead author and astronomer, via 'New York Post'