Credit: SciTechDaily.comNASAs Chandra Identifies an Underachieving Black HoleAstronomers have actually exposed that a brilliant supermassive black hole is not living up to expectations. Understood as H1821 +643, this recently studied quasar is about 3.4 billion light-years from Earth and contains a black hole weighing about 4 billion times that of the Sun.Unusual Black Hole BehaviorMost growing supermassive black holes pull material in less rapidly than those in quasars. Regular outbursts from such black holes avoid the huge quantities of superheated gas they are embedded in from cooling down, which limits how many stars form in their host galaxies and how much fuel gets funneled toward the black hole.Much less is known about how much impact quasars in galaxy clusters have on their surroundings.In the center of these images is the quasar H1821 +643, a quickly growing supermassive black hole that astronomers have discovered is underachieving, in spite of producing intense radiation and a jet of particles seen in radio information from the Very Large Array.”Cooling GasUsing Chandra, the team found that the density of gas near the black hole in the center of the galaxy is much higher, and the gas temperature levels much lower, than in areas farther away. Scientists expect the hot gas to behave like this when there is little or no energy input (which would usually come from outbursts from a black hole) to prevent the hot gas from cooling down and streaming toward the center of the cluster.
Harvard & & Smithsonian. “We might then see that its actually having little result on its environments.”Cooling GasUsing Chandra, the group found that the density of gas near the black hole in the center of the galaxy is much greater, and the gas temperature levels much lower, than in areas further away. Researchers expect the hot gas to behave like this when there is little or no energy input (which would typically come from outbursts from a great void) to prevent the hot gas from cooling off and flowing toward the center of the cluster.”The huge great void is creating a lot less heat than many of the others in the centers of galaxy clusters,” stated co-author Lucy Clews of the Open University in the UK. “This enables the hot gas to rapidly cool off and form new stars, and likewise act as a fuel source for the great void.”The scientists determined that hot gas– equivalent to about 3,000 times the mass of the Sun annually– is cooling to the point that it is no longer noticeable in X-rays. This rapid cooling can easily provide sufficient material for the 120 solar masses of new stars observed to form in the host galaxy every year, and the 40 solar masses consumed by the black hole each year.The group likewise analyzed the possibility that the radiation from the quasar is directly causing the clusters hot gas to cool down. This involves photons of light from the quasar hitting electrons in the hot gas, triggering the photons to end up being more energetic and the electrons to lose energy and cool down. The groups research study showed that this kind of cooling is probably happening in the cluster consisting of H1821 +643 however is much too weak to discuss the big amount of gas cooling seen.Future Prospects”While this great void might be underachieving by not pumping heat into its environment, the present state of affairs will likely not last forever,” said co-author Thomas Braben of the University of Nottingham. “Eventually the fast fuel intake by the great void need to increase the power of its jets and highly heat the gas. The development of the great void and its galaxy must then considerably decrease.”A paper explaining these outcomes appears in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is likewise offered online.Reference: “A cooling flow around the low-redshift quasar H1821 +643” by H R Russell, P E J Nulsen, A C Fabian, T E Braben, W N Brandt, L Clews, M McDonald, C S Reynolds, J S Sanders and S Veilleux, 27 January 2024, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.DOI: 10.1093/ mnras/stae026NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center handles the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatorys Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.