Astronomers used the Chandra X-ray Observatory and a number of other telescopes to see one of the most powerful black holes in recorded history.
Scientists used optical images of the Hubble Orbiting Telescope, reflecting the location of galaxies in the massive cluster RX J1532 at a distance of 3.9 billion light-years from Earth. X-ray data from the Chandra Observatory were then superimposed on the resulting image, illustrating a cloud of hot gas.
The presence of large amounts of hot gas in the center of the cluster has long been a mystery to scientists. The gas should cool over time, while the central region, where its density is highest, should cool most intensively. The pressure drops there, the gas rushes to the center, simultaneously forming new stars. But in this case, astronomers failed to find traces of active star formation.
According to a Chandra Observatory press release, the latest images have helped to clarify the situation. So, in the center of the RX J1532 cluster is a large elliptical galaxy, on either side of which the researchers saw huge empty spaces, as if carved into a cloud of gas.
Astronomers concluded that these zones were pierced by supersonic jets erupting from a giant black hole located in the heart of the galaxy. Powerful jets of plasma carry the gas to the sides, and the shock front at the boundary of the formed cavities forms sound waves that maintain the high temperature of the cloud and subsequently prevent the formation of trillions of new stars.
The dark areas in the images are so large that each of them would fit our Milky Way galaxy. This means that the black hole that spawned them must be at least ten times larger than the one in the Perseus cluster, known for similar empty spaces.
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Usually jets are formed due to the large amount of matter trapped in the event horizon. But this time, the researchers did not detect the intense X-rays, indicating the black hole's exorbitant appetite. Calculations have shown that only ultramassive holes with a mass 10 billion times greater than the sun can eject such powerful jets without absorbing matter.
True, there is another version, according to which the black hole in the RX J1532 cluster has a mass 10 times less, but at the same time rotates at a tremendous speed. However, even in this case, its dimensions exceed most of similar objects discovered in the Universe. Recall that the mass of the largest black hole, discovered in 2012, exceeds the mass of the Sun by 17 billion times.
Detailed results of the study are published in The Astrophysical Journal (a preprint of the article can be viewed at arXiv.org).
Ivan Zagorsky