New space telescope discovers black hole wind troupe racing car

Scientists using Japan’s new X-ray space telescope have witnessed an extraordinary sight: fast-moving clusters of gases shot out of supermass black holes at a speed of nearly one-third. The groundbreaking observations published by nature show that these cosmic winds have complex, blocky structures rather than flowing smoothly as previously assumed, changing our understanding of how black holes affect their host galaxies.

Launched in September 2023, the XRISM Space Telescope captures unprecedented high-resolution X-ray spectrum 456, a quasar that contains a super-large black hole that is about 500 million times that of our sun. The telescope’s analytical instrument detected five different gas flows that flowed outward at a speed between 22-33% of the speed of light, which was impossible to observe using previous techniques.

What makes these findings particularly important is how they answer a long-standing cosmic mystery: how supermassive black holes regulate the growth of their host galaxies? Could these newly discovered wind patterns be the mechanisms astronomers have been seeking?

One million cosmic bucks explode

Instead of a smooth, uniform flow of outflow, the Xrism data indicates that the black hole is popping up something similar to the cosmic overturning balls – up to a million individual gas clumps, each gas clump about 2-16 times the radius of gravity of the black hole size.

This observation is based on the significant differences between fewer precise measurements and previous models. Earlier X-ray observations found out the outflow of supermass black holes, but the limited resolution of these instruments means that scientists observed that it appeared to be a single broad absorption feature rather than multiple different flows.

This difference is clearly demonstrated in the study’s high-resolution data and the study comparisons observed simultaneously by conventional instruments on XMM-Newton and Nustar telescopes. In the case where previous telescopes saw a wide range of absorption features, Xrism showed five discrete absorption lines, each representing gases moving at different speeds.

Extraordinary energy transfer

The researchers determined that these winds would be far away from the enormous energy of black holes and possess excellent properties:

• Mass outflow rate of 60-300 solar energy per year (equivalent to 300 times the pop-up per year)
• Wind dynamics exceeding Eddington’s luminosity limit (theoretical maximum output for black holes of this size)
• Energy flowing out of more than a thousand times more than the galaxy scale
• Momentum flux is ten times greater than galaxy scale outflow
• There are about one million individual gas clumps in the outflow

These measurements challenge existing theoretical models of how black hole winds affect their host galaxies. The energy and motivation brought by these winds far exceeds the current theory that will be transferred to surrounding galaxies, suggesting that such powerful outflows are relatively short-lived events, or that their energy is not effectively transferred to larger scales.

Solve the universe’s problems

These findings help solve the fundamental question about astrophysics, which is the fundamental question about the relationship between supermass black holes and their host galaxies. Observations show that the mass of black holes is related to the mass of the bulge in the center of their galaxy, which suggests that they develop together in some way.

Scientists have long theoretically believed that strong winds in black holes may be the mechanism that regulates this coevolution, but without detailed observations, the exact process remains unclear. New Xrism data provides key insights on how these winds work.

The study shows that these winds are not a characteristic of sustained stability, but may occur. Researchers estimate that this extreme wind activity may occur in less than 10% of the cases in a lifetime. Alternatively, both wind and interstellar medium block structures can prevent effective energy from being transferred to the galaxy scale from flowing out.

Technical achievements

These observations represent significant technical achievements in the Xrism mission. The telescope’s analytical instrument has an X-ray calorimeter with a spectral resolution of about 30 times better than conventional X-ray telescopes, thus distinguishing the energy difference of only 6 electron volts.

This unprecedented solution allows scientists to identify discrete velocity components in outflows for the first time. The instrument’s functionality also allows researchers to determine that wind covers the entire X-ray source, forming the so-called P Cygni-like profile with emission and absorption characteristics.

By observing the changes in X-ray emission in the strong flares that occur during observation, the researchers were able to estimate the size of the X-ray emission corona around the black hole and the distance from the outgoing gas clumps.

Effects on black hole evolution

Although PDS 456 is relatively nearby in terms of the universe (about 2.7 billion light-years), its extreme properties make it similar to the quasars that existed in the younger age of the universe when the black hole peaked at a peak of about 10-1.2 billion years ago.

The researchers noted that luminescent quasars with higher redshifts often show very high luminescence and strong winds similar to PDS 456, suggesting that these extreme wind activity may be common during the growth of the most active supermassive black holes in the history of the universe.

This discovery provides crucial new insights into the mechanisms that shape galaxies in the history of the universe. By understanding how black holes transfer energy into their surroundings through these complex, chocolate winds, scientists can better simulate how these huge objects have affected the evolution of galaxies since the early universe, ultimately helping to explain the cosmic structures we observe today.