Mass Functions Of Supermassive Black Holes Across Cosmic Time

The article I picked was Advances in Astronomy volume 2012. The authors are Brandon C. Kelly and Andrea Merloni. The article was “Mass Functions of Supermassive Black Holes Across Cosmic time.” This journal explains the growth of the supermassive black holes and predicting mass function. The mass functions have some pros and cons and what the future may have on supermassive black holes with mass function. How fast something needs to move to escape gravity of something else. Two things that affect this is the mass of an object and the distance to the center of the object. Black holes occur from gas accretion. When gas accretion happens that is how the black holes grow. With this rapid gas accretion becomes supermassive black holes.

It becomes a time where mass has no volume. These dust particles fall into the supermassive black hole. In this supermassive black hole the gravitational pull is so powerful that nothing can escape it not even light. The supermassive black hole cannot be seen, also known as the event horizon. The event horizon is known as that nothing can escape so this means that the escape velocity is equal to or surpasses the speed of light. This supermassive black hole has a very active galactic nucleus with high luminosity or brightness that can see. Gravity depends on how much mass there is so as these dusty particles fall into the black holes at great speed cause these particles to light up and are known as Active Galactic Nuclei or AGN. The light from this object is stretched in wavelength and it is shifted to the red part of the spectrum known as the redshift. Astronomers may also use the term “active galaxy” to explain the unusual differences such as the spectral lines. Spectral lines are a bright line resulting from emissions of light in a very narrow frequency range. These lines are very strong radio emission lines. A light curve in AGN in simple terms means brightness verse time. Brightness

To understand AGN and estimate what causes the supermassive black holes to grow, Astronomers use broad emission lines to estimate black hole mass and spin. These emission lines show how difficult the lines are and variable in time. There are different ways of estimating mass function in a supermassive black hole. When dealing with mass and learning the different formulas in class. I have learned how to solve for mass by using the formula mass divided by density times volume divided by mass in class. If your trying to find mass, you would cover mass in the triangle which will leave you with density times volume which will give you your mass. In class I have also learned that mass is defined as large body of matter with no definite shape. Just like the supermassive black hole, there is no definite shape with no end in sight. I have also learned that if we move to another planet other than earth that an objects weight will change but its mass will stay the same and not be affected. When using formulas and theoretical models to define the growth and the formation of these supermassive black holes. The discussion of possible empirical research gives good examples and observations