Link-press 202311: Black holes are missing in the early Universe, and computers are after them

Click on the images for higher resolutions.

Conceção artística de um buraco negro.
Artist’s concept of a black hole. This representation includes a disk of overheated material that is being pulled by the gravitational field, and also the jets of material being spewed perpendicularly to the disk. These jets shine brightly in radio frequencies, a signal the authors of this study are able to predict from the automatic analysis of astronomical images using machine learning techniques.
Source: https://www.eso.org/public/portugal/images/eso2305b/
Credits: S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Artist’s concept of an active galaxy, specifically a quasar. Quasars are the very bright centres of remote active galaxies, tilted relative to Earth in a way that exposes their nucleus directly at us. These superluminous centres are fed by massive black holes. As they are very far, they contain information about the first ages of the Universe and the origin of galaxies.
 Video and images available on ESO’s website.
 Credits: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Conceção artística de uma galáxia extremamente brilhante na luz infravermelha e tal como seria quando o Universo tinha cerca de um décimo da sua idade atual.
Artist’s concept of a galaxy shining brightly in infrared light and as it would have looked like when the Universe was one tenth of its current age. This galaxy was detected with NASA’s WISE infrared space telescope. Many more galaxies observed with this telescope were used in the training of the machine learning algorithm developed by the team that authored this study.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-wise-spacecraft-discovers-most-luminous-galaxy-in-universe/
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Conjunto de radiogaláxias – galáxias com emissão significativa nas frequências rádio – observadas com o radiotelescópio LOFAR
Set of radio galaxies – galaxies with significant emission in radio frequencies – observed with the LOFAR radio telescope, superimposed on the same region of the sky in visible light. The extent of the radio emission is evident, which is distinct from the visible part of the galaxy. These are some of the galaxies used in the training of the machine learning algorithm developed by this research team.
Credits: Judith Croston and the LOFAR surveys team
Região do céu incluída no vasto rastreio Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Example of a region of the sky included in the vast Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a mapping of the sky conducted with several telescopes in visible and infrared light. Images from this survey, from parts of the sky that were also observed in the radio frequencies, were used by the authors of this study to test the machine learning algorithm. They showed its efficacy in detecting active galaxies and predicting their radio emission.
Credits: Sloan Digital Sky Survey
O LOFAR é uma infraestrutura europeia com estações de antenas nas radiofrequências em vários países e ligadas em rede.
LOFAR is an European network infrastructure with radio antennae stations in several countries. It is the largest radio telescope operating in the lowest frequencies that are detectable from the Earth’s surface. Its data were included in the training set of the machine learning algorithm implemented by this research team.
Credits: ASTRON/LOFAR
O ASKAP é um radiotelescópio, composto por várias antenas, instalado num dos desertos da Austrália
ASKAP is a radio telescope, comprised of several antennae, installed in one of the Australian deserts. It is a precursor of SKAO, an intergovernmental observatory of which Portugal is a member. The amount of data that it is collecting about galaxies in a vast stretch of the sky can only be processed with automatic computational tools, as the one developed by this team.
Credits: CSIRO Australia/ASKAP