Dr. Francisco
Muller-Sanchez
Dr. Francisco Muller-Sanchez
Research in a Minute focuses on the characterization of the environments around supermassive black holes using the most powerful ground-based and space-based telescopes.
“It is our current understanding that all galaxies in the Universe have a supermassive black hole at the center,” said Muller-Sanchez.
“Our research goal is to characterize the environments around these supermassive black holes to understand and discover the physical processes that drive the evolution of galaxies.”
Muller-Sanchez joined the UofM's Department of Physics and Materials Science in 2018 to help expand the astrophysics program. Through the introduction of new astronomy and astrophysics courses, the University implemented an astronomy concentration in 2019.
In January 2023, Muller-Sanchez and a team of scientists discovered a pair of supermassive black holes growing simultaneously near the center of the newly coalescing galaxy. These “dining” giants are the closest together black holes scientists have ever observed in multiple wavelengths. The discovery revealed that binary black holes and the galaxy mergers that create them may be surprisingly commonplace in the Universe. The results of the research were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and presented in a press conference at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, Wash.
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