An outside squad of astronomers has detected what they say is a “ colossal outpouring ” of gas come from a smuggled hole in a brilliant coltsfoot one billion light - eld forth .
A study describing the finding was published inThe Astrophysical Journal . The team account how they used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array ( ALMA ) and Very Large Telescope ( VLT ) in Chile to note a relatively close galaxy clump phone Abell 2597 .
Looking at the brightest galaxy in this cluster , they find that the supermassive black hollow at its core was firing out cold molecular gas into space , which then rained back onto the black gob . Such a immense system , with the “ fount ” spanning 100,000 light - years , has never been seen before .
“ This is possibly the first system in which we find clean evidence for both cold molecular gas inflow toward the black yap and outflow or uplift from the jets that the dim hole launch , ” Grant Tremblay of the Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , the study ’s lead writer , say in astatementfrom the European Southern Observatory ( ESO ) . “ The supermassive black hole at the inwardness of this elephantine beetleweed acts like a mechanical ticker in a outflow . ”
It ’s remember that this outpouring system is ego - regulating . The mordant hole sends material out into space in mellow - speed cat valium of top-notch - heated material , which then gradually fall back towards the black hole , providing tycoon that increases its activity , and the process repeats .
“ It ’s like celebrate the rain swarm , rain , and puddle all at the same time , ” Tremblay said in astatementfrom the National Radio Astronomy Observatory ( NRAO ) .
Despite being displace out in super C , the cloth is unable to escape the gravitational drag of the galaxy . The fountain is intend to contain about 3 billion solar masses of textile . The gas that the dark kettle of fish fire out tends to be strong , whereas the material that fall back towards it cools down to low temperatures of about -260 ° C ( -435 ° F ) .
fit in to the researchers this process may be common in the universe , and could allow more info about how galaxies form . We ’ve seen material flowing into or out of a beetleweed before , but never both at the same time like this , proving they are part of the same process .
“ The observations also very convincingly support the hypothesis that the warm ionised and cold molecular nebula are one - in - the - same , with the warm ionized gas merely being the ‘ shell ’ around the dusty molecular core that roil within this Galax urceolata - scale fountain , ” the statement from the NRAO noted .
