NASA Detects Eerie Black Hole Forming Stars at a Furious Rate

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Scientists recently found a weakened black hole that is allowing its galaxy to awaken and give birth to thousands of stars.

The black hole is located in the heart of the Phoenix Cluster, a galaxy cluster that’s located roughly 5.8 million light-years from Earth, according to NASA.

In the galaxy cluster, stars are forming very quickly and jets from the black hole appear to be aiding in the creation of these luminous points. Researchers used new data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the NSF’s Karl Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to further study this unique cluster and how it’s impacted by the black hole.

“This is a phenomenon that astronomers had been trying to find for a long time,” said Michael McDonald, astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who led the study. “This cluster demonstrates that, in some instances, the energetic output from a black hole can actually enhance cooling, leading to dramatic consequences.”

The massive galaxy hosting the black hole is circled by extremely hot gas and the mass of this gas, which is equal to trillions of suns, is much greater than the combined mass of all the galaxies included in this bizarre cluster. Hot gas decreases in energy as it glows in X-rays, which generally should cause it to cool down and become a star nursery. However, in other observed galaxy clusters, these bursts of energy driven by black hole activity typically prevent star birth.

For decades, astronomers have looked for galaxy clusters containing rich nurseries of stars in their central galaxies. Instead, they found powerful, giant black holes pumping out energy and keeping the gas too warm to form many stars.

Until now: https://t.co/zttywu9l7E pic.twitter.com/6EdyGFs36I

— NASA (@NASA) November 19, 2019

Combining observations in X-ray, optical, and radio light enabled the researchers to gain better data compared to previous observations obtained in 2012.

New Chandra data shows that hot gas is cooling almost at the rate expected “in the absence of energy injected by a black hole,” NASA pointed out. According to new Hubble data, approximately 10 billion solar masses of cool gas are located along filaments leading up to the black hole, while young stars are forming from this cool gas at a rate of about 500 solar masses per year.

VLA radio data noted that jets were blasting out from the central back hole area and they’ve likely inflated bubbles in the hot gas that are observed in the Chandra data. These bubbles and jets demonstrate the past rapid growth of the black hole. Earlier on, the black hole may have been smaller compared to the mass of its host galaxy, enabling rapid cooling to take place.

#News: Scientists have confirmed the 1st example of a supermassive #BlackHole unable to prevent copious numbers of #stars forming in the core of galaxy cluster where it resides. New #science about some of the most #extreme objects in the Universe! https://t.co/dEaBTDl1x8 ✨ pic.twitter.com/W5fkzv83BY

— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) November 18, 2019

“In the past, outbursts from the undersized black hole may have simply been too weak to heat its surroundings, allowing hot gas to start cooling,” said co-author Matthew Bayliss, who was a researcher at MIT during this study. “But as the black hole has grown more massive and more powerful, its influence has been increasing.”

When the gas is carried away from the core of the cluster by the black hole’s outbursts, cooling can continue. Far away from the black hole, the gas cools faster than it can fall back towards the heart of the galaxy cluster. In time, the outburst will create enough turbulence, sound waves, and shock waves to provide heat and prohibit further cooling. Once the build-up of cool gas takes place, the cycle can happen again.

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