Black Hole Hide and Seek Space Science News home Black Hole Hide and Seek Astronomers have found a galaxy that looks normal in optical light, but Chandra's x-ray vision reveals a black hole in the middle.
Many astronomers think so, but no one has ever been able to prove it.
The X-ray source is located at the center of the galaxy, and has a deficit of low energy X rays, consistent with absorption by a thick cloud of gas. The unified model is an extension of an earlier concept that explains galaxies with unusual energetic activity in their central regions. Type 2 AGNs show evidence of less energetic activity in the form of scattered light and gas moving at moderate speeds, some radio activity in the form of jets, and no low energy X rays. Seyfert galaxies have extremely energetic nuclei similar to more powerful quasars. Seyferts are thought to have black holes in their centers.