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In a surprise announcement earlier today (July 13), the European Southern Observatory said that monster black holes - those giants of millions or billions of solar masses, thought to lurk at the hearts of most galaxies - have a mechanism to become active other than galaxy collisions.

"A new study combining data from ESO's Very Large Telescope and ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory has turned up a surprise. Most of the huge black holes in the centers of galaxies in the past 11 billion years were not turned on by mergers between galaxies, as had been previously thought." and "The process that activates a sleeping black hole - turning its galaxy from quiet to active - has been a mystery in astronomy. What triggers the violent outbursts at a galaxy's center, which then becomes an active galactic nucleus? Up to now, many astronomers thought that most of these active nuclei were turned on when two galaxies merged, or when they passed close to each other and the disrupted material became fuel for the central black hole. Results of the new study indicate this idea may be wrong for many active galaxies." very interesting indeed

good news for x-ray astronomers

An unusual signal picked up by a European space observatory could be the first direct detection of dark matter particles, astronomers say. The findings are tentative and could take several years to check, but if confirmed they would represent a dramatic advance in scientists' understanding of the universe.