The hidden monster at the center of Galaxy NGC 1068 can be seen in close-up in the view above from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. NuSTAR's high-energy X-rays eyes were able to obtain the best view yet into the hidden lair of the galaxy's central, supermassive black hole. This active black hole -- shown as an illustration in the zoomed-in inset -- is one of the most obscured known, surrounded by extremely thick clouds of gas and dust.

"Although we have only detected five of these hidden supermassive black holes, when we extrapolate our results across the whole Universe then the predicted numbers are huge and in agreement with what we would expect to see," said George Lansbury, of the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, at Durham University.

For the first time this past fall, 2015, astronomers were able to clearly see hidden monsters that are predicted to be there, but have previously been elusive because of their 'buried' state. An international team of scientists announced having found initial evidence that poinst to a large population of hidden supermassive black holes in the Universe. Using NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) satellite observatory, the team detected the high-energy x-rays from five supermassive black holes previously clouded from direct view by dust and gas.

"For a long time we have known about supermassive black holes that are not obscured by dust and gas, but we suspected that many more were hidden from our view," says Lansbury."Thanks to NuSTAR, for the first time we have been able to clearly see these hidden monsters that are predicted to be there, but have previously been elusive because of their 'buried' state."

The Hubble Space Telescope color image above shows one of the nine galaxies targeted by NuSTAR. The high energy X-rays detected by NuSTAR revealed the presence of an extremely active supermassive black hole at the galaxy center, deeply buried under a blanket of gas and dust.

The research, led by astronomers at Durham University, UK, supports the theory that potentially millions more supermassive black holes exist in the Universe, but are hidden from view.

The scientists pointed NuSTAR at nine candidate hidden supermassive black holes that were thought to be extremely active at the center of galaxies, but where the full extent of this activity was potentially obscured from view. High-energy x-rays found for five of the black holes confirmed that they had been hidden by dust and gas. The five were much brighter and more active than previously thought as they rapidly feasted on surrounding material and emitted large amounts of radiation.

Such observations were not possible before NuSTAR, which launched in 2012 and is able to detect much higher energy x-rays than previous satellite observatories. Although we have only detected five of these hidden supermassive black holes, when we extrapolate our results across the whole Universe then the predicted numbers are huge and in agreement with what we would expect to see."

Daniel Stern, the project scientist for NuSTAR at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, added: "High-energy X-rays are more penetrating than low-energy X-rays, so we can see deeper into the gas burying the black holes. NuSTAR allows us to see how big the hidden monsters are and is helping us learn why only some black holes appear obscured."

The research was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

The Daily Galaxy via University of Durham

Image credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA

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“The fungi collected at the accident site had more melanin than the fungi collected from outside the exclusion zone,” says Kasthuri Venkateswaran, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This means the fungi have adapted to the radiation activity and as many as twenty percent were found to be radiotrophic—meaning they grew towards the radiation; they loved it.”

SpaceX and NASA are preparing the next cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, which contains over 250 different research investigations that the space station crew will carry out over the next few months, including seven strains of fungi straight from Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear disaster. The microbes will be grown by the crew in microgravity for two weeks before the samples are returned to Earth.

On April 26, 1986, technicians at Chernobyl's infamous reactor #4 were conducting routine systems testing when the reactor was struck by an unexpected power surge that triggered a chain of events that ultimately caused a complete meltdown, which blanketed the area in deadly radiation, turning it into a barren wasteland. During the incident, scientists estimate that the power plant released as much radioactive material into the environment as 400 atomic bombs, similar the one that devastated Hiroshima, Japan.

“Berkeley National Lab has an agreement that allows them to collect samples from the Chernobyl accident site,” explained Venkateswaran (Venkat for short), who is heading the program to send colonies of these fungi up to the space station.
“Following the accident, fungi were the first organisms to pop up in the radiation-soaked environment and scientists wanted to understand how they can thrive in such an environment.”

Venkat and NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab are just one part of a multi-institutional partnership that proposed this study, which aims to better understand how the fungi shield themselves from radiation into order to survive. The team thinks that melanin, the same dark pigment humans have in our skin, helps to shield the fungi from harmful radiation and helps convert that radiation into a food source.

Observable molecular changes within the fungi were isolated to the species collected at and around ground zero. This tells researchers that these changes were brought about by cellular stress from the radiation. They want to duplicate this process to see if new drug therapies can be derived from the fungi. Eight different species of fungi (seven from Chernobyl and one previously grown on station) will be exposed to the stresses of microgravity. The fungi colonies will grow on board the ISS for 14 days, before being returned to Earth. After the samples are returned to JPL, Venkat and his team will compare them to identical strains of fungi grown on the ground.

NASA and the world's space agencies have future missions planned for Mars, and as we move towards exploring the Red Planet and other worlds in the Solar System, having radiation-resistant plants will be a key factor in success.
At JPL, Venkat has become a leading expert in identifying microbes and preventing them from catching a ride on spacecraft. He has discovered and named 25 new organisms, including 15 since joining JPL.

The Daily Galaxy via Motherboard and JPL

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