During November, Miao Li, a PhD candidate at the Columbia University Astronomy Deparment,spent time in Chile working with Xian Chen and Jorge Cuadra from Universidad Católica, as part of the exchange program between both Universities.
They looked into how explosions of supernovae affect the gas surrounding the supermassive black holes. “Supernovae can temporarily remove gas from the vicinity of black holes, which may explain why black holes devour gas intermittently,” she explains. This process is fairly complex, but the computer simulations they will be using can give them insights into the challenge.
