Jacques van Oene
January 5th 05, 08:29 PM
Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington January 5, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
Steve Roy
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256/544-6535)
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, Cambridge, Mass.
(Phone: 617/496-7998)
RELEASE: 05-004
MOST POWERFUL ERUPTION IN THE UNIVERSE DISCOVERED
Astronomers have found the most powerful eruption in the
universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. A super
massive black hole generated this eruption by growing at a
remarkable rate. This discovery shows the enormous appetite
of large black holes, and the profound impact they have on
their surroundings.
The huge eruption was seen in a Chandra image of the hot, X-
ray emitting gas of a galaxy cluster called MS 0735.6+7421.
Two vast cavities extend away from the super massive black
hole in the cluster's central galaxy. The eruption, which has
lasted for more than 100 million years, has generated energy
equivalent to hundreds of millions of gamma-ray bursts.
This event was caused by gravitational energy release, as
enormous amounts of matter fell toward a black hole. Most of
the matter was swallowed, but some of it was violently
ejected before being captured by the black hole. "I was
stunned to find that a mass of about 300 million suns was
swallowed," said Brian McNamara of Ohio University in Athens.
"This is as large as another super massive black hole." He is
lead author of the study about the discovery, which is in the
January 6, 2005, issue of Nature.
Astronomers are not sure where such large amounts of matter
came from. One theory is gas from the host galaxy
catastrophically cooled and was swallowed by the black hole.
The energy released shows the black hole in MS 0735 has grown
dramatically during this eruption. Previous studies suggest
other large black holes have grown very little in the recent
past, and that only smaller black holes are still growing
quickly.
-more-
-2-
"This new result is as surprising as it is exciting," said
co-author Paul Nulsen of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. "This black hole is feasting,
when it should be fasting."
Radio emission within the cavities shows jets from the black
hole erupted to create the cavities. Gas is being pushed away
from the black hole at supersonic speeds over a distance of
about a million light-years. The mass of the displaced gas
equals about a trillion suns, more than the mass of all the
stars in the Milky Way.
The rapid growth of super massive black holes is usually
detected by observing very bright radiation from the centers
of galaxies in the optical and X-ray wavebands, or luminous
radio jets. In MS 0735 no bright central radiation is found,
and the radio jets are faint. The true nature of MS 0735 is
only revealed through X-ray observations of the hot cluster
gas.
"Until now we had no idea this black hole was gorging
itself," said co-author Michael Wise of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. "The discovery of
this eruption shows X-ray telescopes are necessary to
understand some of the most violent events in the universe."
The astronomers estimated how much energy was needed to
create the cavities by calculating the density, temperature
and pressure of the hot gas. By making a standard assumption
that 10 percent of the gravitational energy goes into
launching the jets, they estimated how much material the
black hole swallowed.
Besides generating the cavities, some of the energy from this
eruption should keep the hot gas around the black hole from
cooling, and some of it may also generate large-scale
magnetic fields in the galaxy cluster. Chandra observers have
discovered other cavities in galaxy clusters, but this one is
easily the largest and the most powerful.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.,
manages the Chandra program for NASA's Space Mission
Directorate, Washington. Northrop Grumman of Redondo Beach,
Calif., was the prime development contractor for the
observatory. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray
Center in Cambridge, Mass.
Additional information and images from Chandra are available
on the Web at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu
&
http://chandra.nasa.gov
-end-
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
Headquarters, Washington January 5, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
Steve Roy
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256/544-6535)
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, Cambridge, Mass.
(Phone: 617/496-7998)
RELEASE: 05-004
MOST POWERFUL ERUPTION IN THE UNIVERSE DISCOVERED
Astronomers have found the most powerful eruption in the
universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. A super
massive black hole generated this eruption by growing at a
remarkable rate. This discovery shows the enormous appetite
of large black holes, and the profound impact they have on
their surroundings.
The huge eruption was seen in a Chandra image of the hot, X-
ray emitting gas of a galaxy cluster called MS 0735.6+7421.
Two vast cavities extend away from the super massive black
hole in the cluster's central galaxy. The eruption, which has
lasted for more than 100 million years, has generated energy
equivalent to hundreds of millions of gamma-ray bursts.
This event was caused by gravitational energy release, as
enormous amounts of matter fell toward a black hole. Most of
the matter was swallowed, but some of it was violently
ejected before being captured by the black hole. "I was
stunned to find that a mass of about 300 million suns was
swallowed," said Brian McNamara of Ohio University in Athens.
"This is as large as another super massive black hole." He is
lead author of the study about the discovery, which is in the
January 6, 2005, issue of Nature.
Astronomers are not sure where such large amounts of matter
came from. One theory is gas from the host galaxy
catastrophically cooled and was swallowed by the black hole.
The energy released shows the black hole in MS 0735 has grown
dramatically during this eruption. Previous studies suggest
other large black holes have grown very little in the recent
past, and that only smaller black holes are still growing
quickly.
-more-
-2-
"This new result is as surprising as it is exciting," said
co-author Paul Nulsen of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. "This black hole is feasting,
when it should be fasting."
Radio emission within the cavities shows jets from the black
hole erupted to create the cavities. Gas is being pushed away
from the black hole at supersonic speeds over a distance of
about a million light-years. The mass of the displaced gas
equals about a trillion suns, more than the mass of all the
stars in the Milky Way.
The rapid growth of super massive black holes is usually
detected by observing very bright radiation from the centers
of galaxies in the optical and X-ray wavebands, or luminous
radio jets. In MS 0735 no bright central radiation is found,
and the radio jets are faint. The true nature of MS 0735 is
only revealed through X-ray observations of the hot cluster
gas.
"Until now we had no idea this black hole was gorging
itself," said co-author Michael Wise of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. "The discovery of
this eruption shows X-ray telescopes are necessary to
understand some of the most violent events in the universe."
The astronomers estimated how much energy was needed to
create the cavities by calculating the density, temperature
and pressure of the hot gas. By making a standard assumption
that 10 percent of the gravitational energy goes into
launching the jets, they estimated how much material the
black hole swallowed.
Besides generating the cavities, some of the energy from this
eruption should keep the hot gas around the black hole from
cooling, and some of it may also generate large-scale
magnetic fields in the galaxy cluster. Chandra observers have
discovered other cavities in galaxy clusters, but this one is
easily the largest and the most powerful.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.,
manages the Chandra program for NASA's Space Mission
Directorate, Washington. Northrop Grumman of Redondo Beach,
Calif., was the prime development contractor for the
observatory. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray
Center in Cambridge, Mass.
Additional information and images from Chandra are available
on the Web at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu
&
http://chandra.nasa.gov
-end-
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info