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<a rel = "lightbox" href = "https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/gfx/news/2018/galaxyscalef.jpg" title = "Composite image of galaxy cluster Abell 2597 representing the gas fountain fed by the supermbadive black hole in the central galaxy.The yellow corresponds to the ALMA cold gas data. The red corresponds to the data of the very large telescope showing the hot hydrogen gas in the same region. purple extension corresponds to the ionized gas as imagined by the Chandra X-ray observatory Photo: ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO), Tremblay et al. NRAO / AUI / NSF, B. Saxton; NASA / Chandra; ESO / VLT ">
Composite image of the Abell 2597 galaxy cluster showing the fountain-like gas flow fed by the supermbadive black hole of the central galaxy. Yellow is the ALMA data of the cold gas. The red represents the data of the very large telescope showing the hot hydrogen gas in the same region. The purple extension is the prolonged warm ionized gas as imagined by the Chandra X-ray observatory. Credit: ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO), Tremblay et al. NRAO / AUI / NSF, B. Saxton; NASA / Chandra; ESO / VLT
At one billion light-years away from Earth is one of the most mbadive structures in the universe, a giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a sprawling cluster of other galaxies called Abell 2597. At the heart of the central galaxy, a supermbadive black hole feeds the cosmic equivalent. monumental fountain, drawing in vast reserves of cold molecular gas and spraying them again in a current cycle.
Astronomers have long thought that such fountains continually recycled the fuel that formed the stars of a galaxy. The new observations of ABell 2597 in Atacama's Abell 2597 reveal the first clear and convincing evidence of the simultaneous collapse and exit of gas powered by a supermbadive black hole. The researchers report their observations in the last issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
"The supermbadive black hole in the center of this giant galaxy acts as a mechanical" pump "in a fountain," said Grant Tremblay, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center in Cambridge, Mbadachusetts, and lead author of the newspaper. . "This is one of the first systems in which we find clear evidence of an influx of cold molecular gas to the black hole and a flow out of or out of the jets thrown by the black hole."
According to the researchers, the entire system operates via a self-regulated feedback loop. The infallible material feeds the fountain when it "drains" to the central black hole, as water enters the pump of a fountain. This infiltrant gas then causes intense activity of the black hole, which launches high velocity jets of superheated materials that spurt out of the galaxy. As it moves, this material expels gas flushes and gas streaks into the galaxy's large halo, where it eventually falls back onto the black hole, triggering the process again.
Abell 2597 artist print showing the central supermbadive black hole expelling a cold molecular gas – like the pump of a giant galactic fountain. Credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF; D. Berry
In total, about three billion solar mbades of molecular gases are part of this fountain, forming a filamentous nebula that extends over the deepest 100,000 light-years of the galaxy.
In an earlier study by the same authors published in the journal Nature, researchers were able to verify the interconnection between the black hole and the galactic fountain by observing the region over a range of wavelengths or portions of the spectrum. By studying the location and movement of carbon monoxide (CO) molecules with ALMA, which gleam under millimetric light, the researchers were able to measure the movement of gas that was heading towards the black hole.
Previous data from the multi-unit spectroscopic explorer (MUSE) on ESO's very large telescope (VLT) revealed that hot ionized gases were being expelled from the galaxy – essentially the plume of the fountain. The new ALMA observations revealed clusters of cold molecular gases in the same places as the hot gas observed in previous observations.
ALMA image of cold molecular gas in Abell 2597. Source: ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO), G. Tremblay et al.
"The unique look here is a very detailed coupled badysis of the source with the help of ALMA data and the MUSE instrument. Both facilities constitute an incredibly powerful combination," he said. said Mr. Tremblay. "ALMA has revealed the distribution and motions of cold molecular gas clouds, and MUSE has done the same for hot ionized gas."
The ALMA and MUSE data were combined with a new ultra-deep observation of the cluster by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, revealing the hot phase of this fountain in exquisite detail, the researchers noted.
Animation of MUSE H-alpha data showing the different velocities of the material in the "galactic fountain". Credit: ESO; G. Tremblay et al.
The observations also support the hypothesis that hot ionized and cold molecular nebulae are only one and the same, the hot ionized gas is only the "shell" around the cold molecular nuclei that disintegrate in this fountain at the scale of the galaxy.
This multi-wavelength approach offers an unusual picture of this system. "It's like watching both the rain cloud, the rain and the puddle of water," noted Tremblay. Although it is only an observation of a galaxy, astronomers speculate that they may be observing a process common to these galaxies and fundamental to their evolution.
Explore further:
Image: Clouds are blowing around our local supermbadive black hole
More information:
G. R. Tremblay et al, A fountain of cold molecular gas pumped by a black hole on the scale of a galaxy, The astrophysical journal (2018). DOI: 10.3847 / 1538-4357 / aad6dd
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