What lies hidden in the dark hearts of galaxies?

To understand the Universe and its history, we must study the largest building blocks - the galaxies. Galaxies evolve particularly fast when they are embedded in dust and gas, an environment that fuels the creation of new stars and planets, or the growth of supermassive black holes.

As a Wallenberg Scholar, Susanne Aalto wants to use new methods and new telescopes to see through the veils of dust and map out what happens when stars, planets and black holes grow most intensively, and thus understand why the universe looks the way it does today.

The dust-enshrouded galaxies are important for the evolution of the Universe - but they can not be seen in visible light. Susanne Aalto and her research group are therefore using radio and infrared radiation to investigate what lies at the heart of galaxies. They want to find out how black holes become more massive and reveal hitherto unknown, fast-growing black holes. They will also investigate whether cold winds and jets act as 'engines' for the growth of black holes. 

The intense growth in the dust-embedded galaxies could be the final spurt before the galaxies slow down and become inactive, passive galaxies. A fate that may also await our galaxy, the Milky Way, sometime in the future.

New methods for finding molecules 

The research group is developing new methods to study galaxies using the world's most powerful radio telescopes. They can capture radiation from different molecules that thrive in the dust and gas, such as hydrogen cyanide and water. By combining the radiation from many molecules, researchers can find out, among other things, how fast the black hole and stars are growing. It is thought that supermassive black holes grow together with their surrounding stars - but it is not yet known why this is the case or how it happens.