New findings from 'monster' black hole

Astronomers at the University of Southampton are part of an international team which has just revealed some striking features in the gases emitted from the regions close to one of the brightest, supermassive black holes known to us.

Astronomers at the University of Southampton are part of an international team which has just revealed some striking features in the gases emitted from the regions close to one of the brightest, supermassive black holes known to man.

The results are published in Astronomy and Astrophysics today (29 September).

The team, led by Dr Jelle Kaastra from the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research observed and mapped the environment around this 'monster' black hole which is in the distant galaxy Markarian 509 and has a mass 300 million times that of the sun.

The researchers found a very hot 'convertor' corona hovering above the black hole and cold gas 'bullets' in hotter diffuse gas, speeding outwards with velocities up to 700 km/s.

According to Dr Gabriele Ponti of Physics and Astronomy at Southampton, who is leading the studies related to the emission produced by the iron present in the nucleus of the galaxy, this discovery allows astronomers to locate the outflowing matter and, for the first time, to show that it is not a continuous flow, but formed by at least five distinct components, like “bullets“.

"We now know that not all matter around a black hole is swallowed up," he said. "Our studies allow us to understand that most of the visible outflowing gas is blown off from a dusty gas torus surrounding the central region and located at more than 15 light years from the black hole, moreover to examine the impact of these bullets on the host galaxy."

The international consortium responsible for this campaign consists of 26 astronomers from 21 institutes on four continents. The first results of this campaign will be published in a series of seven papers in Astronomy and Astrophysics. More results are in preparation.

The set of papers can be accessed at:

paper I: http://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201116869 paper II: http://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201116870 paper III: http://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201116899 paper IV: http://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201116875 paper V: http://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201117067 paper VI: http://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201117123 paper VII: http://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201117304

Image: Black hole outflow: Turbulent winds of gas swirl around a black hole. Some of the gas is spiraling inward toward the black hole, but another part is blown away (NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)

For further information on this news story contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453