The titanic explosion of this black hole created 19 massive star clusters!

When we think of black holes, and especially those that are supermassive and contain at least one million solar masses and sometimes more than 10 billion, we think of cosmic monsters that devour stars or interstellar streams of matter. In both cases, the accretion disk forms around the massive black hole where matter spirals into the disk and generates frictional forces due to the viscosity of the gas. The heat released can be so great that the gas becomes a plasma at a very high temperature and therefore diffuses in its field enormously. X-rayX-ray.

Matter doesn’t fall onto just any black hole, but rotating kerns fall onto black holes. At the surface of complex magnetohydrodynamic processes, such as the sunthe sunAlso found in disks forming a ring around a black hole, or in the more inner part of a stream of matter, giving rise to jets of particles but sometimes also instabilities that are the source of massive explosions, similar to the Sun. .

Jean-Pierre Luminet, CNRS research director and Collège de France professor François Combes, tells us about black holes, especially large supermassive black holes in galaxies that are behind quasars and that affect the evolution of galaxies. © Hugot Foundation of the Collège de France

A black hole in a massive galaxy at the heart of a cluster of galaxies

A team ofAstronomersAstronomersAmong whom is Francois Combs, said through An article about arXiv That she discovered the most powerful black hole explosion ever. Paradoxically, the destructive force of this mega-explosion indirectly became a creative force.DownfallDownfall For many the cloudsthe clouds Number of gas and dust several billion years ago, giving rise to 19 SuperclusterSupercluster Nothe starsthe stars.

on acquired images and which combines observations with multiple wavelengthwavelength, these superclusters are arranged in an “S” shape that resembles beads on a string. This shows a cluster of images galaxygalaxy SDSS J1531+3414 (SDSS J1531 for short) as it was 3.8 billion years ago, about 200 million years after the super-explosion.

It came around one A supermassive black holeA supermassive black hole Found in two massive galaxies that are usually found at the heart of clusters and which in this case are seen when they collide. In this case, several tools were used, including the moonthe moon X-Ray Observatory No NASANASA And Low frequency array (loafer), a Radio telescopeRadio telescope.

Grant Tremblay, who participated in the study, summarized the findings in a NASA press release in these words: “ We reconstructed a possible sequence of events in this cluster that occurred over a wide range of distances and times. It all started with a tiny fraction of a black holelight yearslight years In diameter, it forms a cavity about 500,000 light-years wide. This unique event triggered the formation of young star clusters, every few thousand light years, about 200 million years later. »

appears to be accompanied by an explosionemissionsemissions Jets of material that dislodge the gas surrounding the two central galaxies, therefore creating a large cavity in the cluster’s intergalactic medium. Lofar shows radio waves coming from the remnants of the jet’s energetic particles filling the giant cavity.

for AstrophysicistsAstrophysicistsBased on the observations ofAtacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (abbreviated Alma), established in the desertthe desert Atacama in northern Chile, and telescopetelescope Gemini north On the mythical Mauna Ke, The VolcanoVolcano The hot gas ejected from the eruption of the black hole, the United States’ sleeping shield located on Hawaii Island, subsequently cooled.

Superclusters of stars formed by tidal forces and jets of matter

It later collapsed gravitationally, not as a result of the compression of the shock wave produced by the exploding black hole but rather due to the tidal force of the two galaxies. This is how they explain why superclusters of stars come together to form an S like pearls on a necklace.

In a similar statement, Osase Omoruyi, who led the study at Center FourAstrophysicsAstrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), states: “ We believe this is our evidence for a giant explosion SolidSolid, but further observations with Chandra and Laufer will confirm the case. We hope to learn more about the origin of the cavity already discovered and find the one expected on the other side of the black hole. »

Astronomers have discovered the most powerful black hole flare ever. This mega-explosion billions of years ago may help explain the formation of the striking pattern of star clusters surrounding the two giant galaxies, which resemble “beads on a string.” The discovery was made in a system known as SDSS J1531, which was observed 3.8 billion years ago. The researchers used several telescopes for this study, including Chandra X-ray Observatory NASA and the low frequency array, Or LOFER, which is a network of radio telescopes in Europe. To get the most accurate French translation, click on the white rectangle at the bottom right. English subtitles should appear afterwards. Then click on the nut to the right of the rectangle, then on “Subtitles” and finally on “Translate automatically”. Select “French”. © NASA’s Lunar X-ray Observatory

Indeed, the press release also explains that Omoruyi and his colleagues only see radio waves for cavities coming from a single jet, but it is known that black holes typically generate not one but two jets in opposite directions. The team observed radio emission from galaxies further away that could be remnants of other jets, but not associated with cavities. So the researchers assume that the radio and X-ray signals from the other jets may have faded to the point of being undetectable.

Roger Blandford talks to us about supermassive black holes and their jets in this video. To get the most accurate French translation, click on the white rectangle at the bottom right. English subtitles should appear afterwards. Then click on the nut to the right of the rectangle, then on “Subtitles” and finally on “Translate automatically”. Select “French”. © Quanta Magazine