Black Holes Hide in Our Cosmic Backyard

Monster black holes sometimes lurk behind gas and dust, hiding from the gaze of most telescopes. But they give themselves away when material they feed on emits high-energy X-rays that NASA's NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission can detect. That's how NuSTAR recently identified two gas-enshrouded supermassive black holes, located at the centers of nearby galaxies.

NGC 1448, a galaxy with an active galactic nucleus hidden by gas and dust, is seen in this image. Image credit: Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey/NASA/JPL-Caltech

Both of these black holes are the central engines of what astronomers call "active galactic nuclei," a class of extremely bright objects that includes quasars and blazars.

Depending on how these galactic nuclei are oriented and what sort of material surrounds them, they appear very different when examined with telescopes.

First is an active galaxy called IC 3639, which is 170 million light years away.

The second is the spiral galaxy NGC 1448, with a large population of young (just 5 million year old) stars, suggesting that the galaxy produces new stars at the same time that its black hole feeds on gas and dust. (NASA)

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