. 24/7 Space News .
TIME AND SPACE
Scientists observe supermassive black hole feeding on cold gas
by Staff Writers
Boston MA (SPX) Jun 14, 2016


This illustration depicts the view from outside of a rapidly-accreting black hole. The bright light toward the center represents the super-heating of gas as it falls onto the black hole. Emanating from the center is a jet of accelerated particles moving near the speed of light. Surrounding the black hold is cool, clumpy gas and dust, which are falling inwards and will eventually join the material accreting onto the black hole. Image courtesy NRAO/AUI/NSF and Dana Berry/SkyWorks.

At the center of a galaxy cluster, 1 billion light years from Earth, a voracious, supermassive black hole is preparing for a chilly feast. For the first time, astronomers have detected billowy clouds of cold, clumpy gas streaming toward a black hole, at the center of a massive galaxy cluster. The clouds are traveling at speeds of up to 355 kilometers per second - that's almost 800,000 miles per hour - and may be only 150 light years away from its edge, almost certain to fall into the black hole, feeding its bottomless well.

The observations, which will be published in the journal Nature, represent the first direct evidence to support the hypothesis that black holes feed on clouds of cold gas. The results also suggest that fueling a black hole - a process known as accretion - is a whole lot messier than scientists had once thought.

"The simple model of black hole accretion consists of a black hole surrounded by a sphere of hot gas, and that gas accretes smoothly onto the black hole, and everything's simple, mathematically," says Michael McDonald, assistant professor of physics in MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. "But this is the most compelling evidence that this process is not smooth, simple, and clean, but actually quite chaotic and clumpy."

Given the new observations, McDonald says black holes probably have two ways of feeding: For most of the time, they may slowly graze on a steady diet of diffuse hot gas. Once in a while, they may quickly gobble up clumps of cold gas as it comes nearby.

"This diffuse, hot gas is available to the black hole at a low level all the time, and you can have a steady trickle of it going in," McDonald says. "Every now and then, you can have a rainstorm with all these droplets of cold gas, and for a short amount of time, the black hole's eating very quickly. So the idea that there are these two dinner modes for black holes is a pretty nice result."

McDonald is a co-author on the paper, which was led by Grant Tremblay, an astronomer at Yale University.

Seeing shadows
The researchers made their detection using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA - one of the most powerful telescopes in the world, designed to see the oldest, most distant galaxies in the universe. The team focused ALMA's telescopes 1 billion light years away, on the central galaxy in the Abell 2597 Cluster, a galaxy that is some tens of thousands of light years across. This particular galaxy is among the brightest in the universe, as it is likely producing many new stars.

The team originally wanted to get a sense for how many stars this cluster was churning out, so they mapped all the cold gas within the cluster. This cold gas has cooled and condensed out of the diffuse halo of hot gas surrounding a cluster, forming clumps. It is the collapse of cold gas that creates new stars, especially in the cluster's central galaxy.

"In the center of a cluster, there's a single massive galaxy, the big daddy galaxy of the cluster," McDonald says. "It's sitting at the bottom of a gravitational funnel, and all the gas from a thousand galaxies is available to it. These are the galaxies that are the most massive, with the most massive black holes in the universe, and the most potential for star formation."

The researchers used ALMA to map the spectral signatures, or radio emissions, from the galaxy cluster, looking specifically for signatures of carbon monoxide, the presence of which usually indicates very cold gas, of minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit and below. They mapped carbon monoxide across the entire galaxy cluster and found that as they looked further into the cluster, they encountered progressively cooler gas, from millions of degrees Fahrenheit to subzero temperatures.

At the very center, just at the edge of the cluster's supermassive black hole, the researchers discovered something quite unexpected: the shadows of three very cold, very clumpy gas clouds. The shadows were cast against bright jets of material spewing from the black hole, suggesting that these clouds were very close to being consumed by the black hole.

"We got very lucky," McDonald says. "We could probably look at 100 galaxies like this and not see what we saw just by chance. Seeing three shadows at once is like discovering not just one exoplanet, but three in the first try. Nature was very kind in this case."

A high-energy feast
The team estimated the velocities of the three clouds to be 240, 275, and 355 kilometers per second, with all three headed toward the black hole. McDonald says these three cold gas clouds will likely not stream straight into the black hole but instead be absorbed into its accretion disc - the massive disc of material that will eventually spiral into the black hole.

He adds that while ALMA was only able to see three clouds of cold gas near the black hole, there may be even more in the vicinity, setting the black hole up for quite a feast.

"We're only seeing this tiny sliver," McDonald says. "If there are three clouds in just our line of sight, there might be millions of clouds all around. And there's a tremendous amount of energy in just these three clouds. So if we were to look at this thing a million years later, we might see that the black hole is in outburst - much brighter, with more powerful jets, because all this high-energy material is landing on it."


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Understanding Time and Space






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

Previous Report
TIME AND SPACE
Black hole deluged by cold intergalactic 'rain'
Charlottesville VA (SPX) Jun 10, 2016
An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has witnessed a never-before-seen cosmic weather event - a cluster of towering intergalactic gas clouds raining in on the supermassive black hole at the center of an elliptical galaxy one billion light-years from Earth. The new ALMA observations are the first direct evidence that cold dense c ... read more


TIME AND SPACE
US may approve private venture moon mission: report

Fifty Years of Moon Dust

Airbus Defence and Space to guide lunar lander to the Moon

A new, water-logged history of the Moon

TIME AND SPACE
Musk explains his 'cargo route' to Mars

NASA Mars Rover Descends Plateau, Turns Toward Mountain

Remarkably diverse flora in Utah, USA, trains scientists for future missions on Mars

NASA Mars Orbiters Reveal Seasonal Dust Storm Pattern

TIME AND SPACE
Disney brings its brand to Shanghai with new theme park

Tech, beauty intersect in Silicon Valley

Second Starliner Begins Assembly in Florida Factory

Mexican engineer extracts gas from urine to heat shower

TIME AND SPACE
Experts Fear Chinese Space Station Could Crash Into Earth

Bolivia to pay back loan to China for Tupac Katari satellite

China plans 5 new space science satellites

NASA Chief: Congress Should Revise US-China Space Cooperation Law

TIME AND SPACE
Cygnus space capsule departs International Space Station

Russian, US Astronauts to Return From ISS on June 18

Astronauts enter inflatable room at space station

First steps into BEAM will expand the frontiers of habitats for space

TIME AND SPACE
SpaceX launches satellites but fails to recover rocket

Russian Proton-M Rocket Puts US Intelsat DLA-2 Satellite Into Orbit

US Senate reaches compromise on Russian rocket engines

MUOS-5 satellite encapsulated for launch

TIME AND SPACE
New planet is largest discovered that orbits 2 suns

Smaller Stars Pack Big X-ray Punch for Would-Be Planets

Clouds, haze cause astronomers to overestimate size of exoplanets

Planet-Devouring Star Reveals Possible Limestone Crumbs

TIME AND SPACE
Can computers do magic?

New maths accurately captures liquids and surfaces moving in synergy

Europe Develops Self-removal Technology for Spacecraft

Thales unveils Ground Master 60 mobile radar









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.