• »Dusty Surprise Around Black Hole Found By UCSB Physics Postdoctoral Fellow (UCSB Featured News)

New observations of a nearby active galaxy called NGC 3783 have given a team of astronomers — including physics postdoc Sebastian Hoenig — a surprise. Their discovery of a cool dust around a black hole, and an accompanying wind that it creates, lend intrigue to the examination of how supermassive black holes grow and evolve within galaxies. The black hole feeds its insatiable appetite from the surrounding material, but the intense radiation this produces also seems to be blowing the material away. It is still unclear how these two processes work together, but the presence of a cool, dusty wind in the polar regions adds a new piece to the picture. The work is published in the Astrophysical Journal. READ MORE (UCSB Featured News)