国立天文台

• 科学・IT

A unique research project about black holes is carried out using a virtual observatory.

Some of the supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies are observed as active galactic nuclei, or AGN. By attracting surrounding material, the AGN release huge amounts of energy. How does this black hole grow?

Astronomers used a so-called “Virtual Observatory” to answer this question. The Virtual Observatory is a system to make integrated use of various astronomical databases around the world via the Internet.