Filipina finds largest number of ‘black holes’
April 21, 2008 -- Got something to say?
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NEW JERSEY – A team of scholar-graduates based at the Princeton University here led by a young Filipino scientist, has discovered the largest number of “black holes” in the history of astronomy, according to a report published in the Filipino Reporter in New York.
The scientist, Reinabelle Reyes, a Ph.D. student at Princeton University and a BS Physics summa cum laude graduate at the Ateneo de Manila University in 2005, led a team of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) scientists who found a large number of hidden quasars that are shrouded in light-absorbing dust and gas.
Reyes is a scholar-graduate of the Philippine Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute (DoST-SEI). Reyes said her team found around 900 hidden quasars, the largest sample ever found.
“We found that hidden quasars make up at least half of the quasars in the nearby universe, implying that most of the powerful ‘black holes’ in our neighborhood had previously been unrecognized,” she said.
Black holes were once massive stars that used up all their fuel. As they died out, they collapsed inward due to the pull of their own gravity. The gravity of a black hole is so powerful that not even light can escape its pull. Once any matter falls into a black hole, it disappears from the visible universe.
The black holes that Reyes’s team found are classified as “s” and are believed to be supermassive and exist in the center of a class of galaxies known as active galactic nuclei (AGN).
An AGN is a class of galaxies that spew massive amounts of energy from their centers, far more than ordinary galaxies.
Reyes said their discovery shows that powerful black holes are more common in the last eight billion years of cosmic history than had previously been thought and that the relative numbers of hidden quasars compared to normal quasars show how the appearance of dust and gas determines the presence of a hidden quasar.
“The large number of hidden quasars we discovered implies that most of the light emitted by quasars is actually obscure. Moreover, because the light from these hidden quasars previously had been unaccounted for,black holes turn out to be more efficient in converting the energy of in-falling matter into light than we had thought,” she said.
In Manila, Department of Science and Technology executive director Dr. Ester Ogena said she is hoping that Reyes’s work would inspire more young Filipinos to pursue a career in space science.
“We hope that our students would be able to get inspiration from Reyes and pursue a career in the sciences that will hopefully add to the roster of our great astronomers and space scientists,” she said.
The DoST-SEI has laid the groundwork for a Philippine Space Education Program (PSEP) in the country following a designation by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-Paris to act as focal point for its space-education program and related activities in the Philippines.
The PSEP also seeks to engage the Filipinos in the exploration of space science and technology and the process of science in various disciplines to create an educated public and develop future space science explorers.
The PSEP also aims to create awareness among the students in career opportunities in the various fields of science and engineering, including space science, that would raise standards and address skill shortages towards national development.
It aspires to establish linkages and partnership with space organizations and institutions for possible assistance and collaboration in space science education programs and projects.
Earlier, SEI Science and Technology Human Resource Studies and Promotions Program officer-in-charge Ruby Cristobal said that despite the lack of space exploration in the country, students should not lose interest in space science and technology as it can still be honed through research and development.
Careers involving space science and technology include geodetic engineering, meteorology and information technology, among others.
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