Resource Space.com summarizes the results of 2012 and called the most unusual comic events of the outgoing year.

The biggest black hole

In a distant galaxy NGC 1277 found a black hole that is more than half the centre of the galaxy. This is the biggest black hole ever found.


Usually supermassive black holes take place in the center of the galaxy and manage many of the processes in it. In the Universe there are many galaxies with supermassive black holes at the centre, with a small black holes of stellar scale in other regions of galaxies. It is believed that supermassive black holes grow together with their galaxies.

But new observations show that this rule does not always work. Moreover, they completely ruin it. In most systems the black hole mass is approximately 0.1% of the mass of the Central region of the galaxy. Now, however, researchers have discovered a black hole, which accounts for 59% of the mass of the Central region of the galaxy. By itself, the black hole is one of the biggest, but the galaxy in which it sits, is significantly smaller than ours.

The closest planet from another system

The European southern Observatory has discovered a planet in the nearest to the Earth star system - the star alpha Centauri Century As noted, this planet is about the mass of the earth.



Star system alpha constellation of Centaurus is the brightest star in the southern sky and the nearest to the Solar system. It is a triple star, consisting of two stars similar to the Sun, alpha Centauri A and alpha Centauri B and third, remote from them of Proxima Centauri.

The hypothesis that in the system of alpha Centauri may be coming to the Earth planet with the possibility of life on them. However, previously the technical possibilities are not allowed to consider whether there are these stars of the planet.

The smallest planet from another system

A group of astronomers using data collected by the space telescope Kepler discovered a planetary system, which was three record-small planet - all of them less Land, and one comparable in size with Mars.



All three planets despite its small size, can not be a haven of living organisms. They all speak very close to its star - the temperature on the surface of a distant planet reaches 200 degrees Celsius and on the surface of the nearest - comes to 500 degrees.

The smallest system



The system KOI-500 has five planets are so close to its sun, that year they only lasts 1, 3, 4.6, 7.1 and 9.5 days, respectively.

The oldest galaxy

Galaxy UDFj-39546284 was formed at a time when our Universe was only 380 million years.



The main indicator of distances to distant galaxies is red shift is the shift of lines in the spectrum because of the Doppler effect. The greater the redshift, the more space object, as with distance according to the Hubble law, the escape velocity of galaxies is growing.

The most massive cluster of galaxies

A cluster of galaxies SPT-CLJ2344-4243, unofficially named Phoenix, discovered at a distance of 5.7 billion light years from Earth.



Astronomers say that this is one of the largest of these clusters in the Universe. In addition, the cluster Phoenix was one of the brightest x-ray sources.

However, most astronomers were surprised by the unusual activity of the cluster. Galaxy that lies at the center of such clusters are usually "sleeping" and not give birth to new stars. However, the Central galaxy in the cluster Phoenix is characterized by a very intense star formation: analyzing images taken by the Chandra x-ray Observatory, astrophysicists came to the conclusion that in the year it forms approximately 740 new stars, that is, about two stars in the day.

The most detailed map of the Universe

In 2012 was created the most detailed 3D map of the Universe. the map contains information on the status of a million galaxies and is the largest in the world (for comparison, another recently introduced map included descriptions 45 thousand galaxies).



However, scientists note that it is only one third of the information that will be contained in the final version by the end of the six-year Kaunasskogo project.

The most in-depth look into the Universe

Space telescope Hubble was able to get the image of extremely distant galaxies that formed shortly after the Big Bang, in which, say, the universe was created.

Photography has allowed to reveal a lot of galaxies, which previously were not visible because of their enormous distances from us.

The "magnetic" star

American astronomers have discovered in the constellation Perseus big star NGC 1624-2 with the strongest magnetic field of all known stars. The magnetic field of stars stronger sun 20 thousand times, and within the magnetosphere lights extend over 11 it radii. Thanks blue giant has "luxurious" mantle of particles of the solar wind, captured by the magnetic field.



On the other hand, the speed of light was extremely low. AllegedlyUte astrophysics, star spends up to 160 days to commit one revolution around its axis. For comparison, the Sun makes one revolution in just 25 days.