Astronomers capture black hole eruption spanning 16 times the full Moon
in the sky

Date:
December 22, 2021
Source:
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Summary:
Astronomers have produced the most comprehensive image of radio
emission from the nearest actively feeding supermassive black hole
to Earth. The emission is powered by a central black hole in the
galaxy Centaurus A, about 12 million light years away. When viewed
from Earth, the eruption from Centaurus A now extends eight degrees
across the sky -- the length of 16 full Moons laid side by side.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Astronomers have produced the most comprehensive image of radio emission
from the nearest actively feeding supermassive black hole to Earth.


==========================================================================
The emission is powered by a central black hole in the galaxy Centaurus A, about 12 million light years away.

As the black hole feeds on in-falling gas, it ejects material at near
light- speed, causing 'radio bubbles' to grow over hundreds of millions
of years.

When viewed from Earth, the eruption from Centaurus A now extends eight
degrees across the sky -- the length of 16 full Moons laid side by side.

It was captured using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in
outback Western Australia.

The research was published today in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Lead author Dr Benjamin McKinley, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said the image reveals spectacular new details of the radio emission from the galaxy.



========================================================================== "These radio waves come from material being sucked into the supermassive
black hole in the middle of the galaxy," he said.

"It forms a disc around the black hole, and as the matter gets ripped
apart going close to the black hole, powerful jets form on either
side of the disc, ejecting most of the material back out into space,
to distances of probably more than a million light years.

"Previous radio observations could not handle the extreme brightness
of the jets and details of the larger area surrounding the galaxy were distorted, but our new image overcomes these limitations." Centaurus A
is the closest radio galaxy to our own Milky Way.

"We can learn a lot from Centaurus A in particular, just because it is
so close and we can see it in such detail," Dr McKinley said.



==========================================================================
"Not just at radio wavelengths, but at all other wavelengths of light
as well.

"In this research we've been able to combine the radio observations
with optical and x-ray data, to help us better understand the physics of
these supermassive black holes." Astrophysicist Dr Massimo Gaspari, from Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics, said the study corroborated
a novel theory known as 'Chaotic Cold Accretion' (CCA), which is emerging
in different fields.

"In this model, clouds of cold gas condense in the galactic halo and
rain down onto the central regions, feeding the supermassive black hole,"
he said.

"Triggered by this rain, the black hole vigorously reacts by launching
energy back via radio jets that inflate the spectacular lobes we see in
the MWA image.

This study is one of the first to probe in such detail the multiphase CCA 'weather' over the full range of scales," Dr Gaspari concluded.

Dr McKinley said the galaxy appears brighter in the centre where it is
more active and there is a lot of energy.

"Then it's fainter as you go out because the energy's been lost and
things have settled down," he said.

"But there are interesting features where charged particles have
re-accelerated and are interacting with strong magnetic fields."
MWA director Professor Steven Tingay said the research was possible
because of the telescope's extremely wide field-of-view, superb
radio-quiet location, and excellent sensitivity.

"The MWA is a precursor for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) -- a global initiative to build the world's largest radio telescopes in Western
Australia and South Africa," he said.

"The wide field of view and, as a consequence, the
extraordinary amount of data we can collect, means that
the discovery potential of every MWA observation is very
high. This provides a fantastic step toward the even bigger SKA." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by International_Centre_for_Radio_Astronomy_Research. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Central_black_hole_in_the_galaxy_Centaurus_A ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. B. McKinley, S. J. Tingay, M. Gaspari, R. P. Kraft, C. Matherne,
A. R.

Offringa, M. McDonald, M. S. Calzadilla, S. Veilleux, S. S. Shabala,
S.

D. J. Gwyn, J. Bland-Hawthorn, D. Crnojević, B. M. Gaensler, M.

Johnston-Hollitt. Multi-scale feedback and feeding in the
closest radio galaxy Centaurus A. Nature Astronomy, 2021; DOI:
10.1038/s41550-021- 01553-3 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211222153042.htm

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