A team of researchers has discovered that the winds generated by supermassive black holes are 100 times more powerful than previously thought, carrying energy across distances of approximately 300,000 light-years.
A team of researchers has discovered that the winds generated by supermassive black holes are 100 times more powerful than previously thought, carrying energy across distances of approximately 300,000 light-years. The discovery demonstrates that these explosive winds impact the vast expanse of space beyond the galaxies they inhabit.
"Black holes are largely known for sucking matter in, but they also eject gas in the form of powerful winds," says Satoshi Yamada, Assistant Professor at Tohoku University's Frontier Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS). "These winds were thought to be contained within the galaxy, but our study revealed that the force is immensely more powerful than previously understood."
Yamada and his team, comprising colleagues from Kanazawa University and Tokyo Metropolitan University among others, harnessed the X-ray astronomy satellite XRISM to observe the activity of the quasar H1821+643, which is located in the constellation of Draco, approximately 3.4 billion light-years from Earth. Quasars are extremely luminous objects powered by supermassive black holes that actively consume gas.
Read More: Tohoku University
Image: Schematic illustration of the hierarchical structure of the Universe, from a galaxy group (a collection of galaxies) to an individual galaxy and the supermassive black hole at its center. Although a black hole is more than 100 million times smaller than the radius of its host galaxy, it plays a crucial role in the galaxy's central region. ©Tohoku University
