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| A massive black hole ejected a jet of plasma into space, and it crashed into something unknown
Astronomers using the X-ray space telescope "Chandra" discovered an unusual trail of a powerful jet of a giant black hole that crashed into an unknown object on its way.
Scientists used the Chandra X-ray Space Telescope to study the Centauri A galaxy, which is located 12 million light-years away. At the center of the galaxy is a supermassive black hole that emits jets of plasma that extend across the entire galaxy. These jets do not come from the black hole itself, but from the surrounding disk of hot matter that feeds the black hole. In the new image, astronomers saw that one of the jets of the black hole crashed into an unknown object. The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal, writes Phys.
Astronomers found out that the jet of the black hole moves almost at the speed of light. Observations made it possible to detect a region of V-shaped radiation, which is associated with an unknown source of X-ray radiation. It was not previously observed in the Centauri A galaxy.
The unknown object, named C4, is located in the path of the jet of a supermassive black hole. At the same time, astronomers estimated that the length of each part of the "V" is at least 700 light years. For comparison, the nearest star to us is almost 4 light years away, and one light year is 9,4 trillion kilometers.
So far, astronomers do not know what kind of object it is that creates X-ray radiation, and into which the jet of the black hole crashed. Perhaps it is a massive star that is not gravitationally bound to the black hole, or perhaps it is a star that orbits the black hole.
Scientists believe that the X-ray radiation of the C4 object can be created due to the collision of jet particles and particles of the stellar wind, if it is a star after all.
But why the radiation has a V-shaped shape also remains a mystery.
In fact, this is not the first time astronomers have observed how a jet of a black hole in Centauri A crashes into other objects in this galaxy. Past studies have shown that these objects may be massive stars or clouds of interstellar gas. But the encounters of these objects with the black hole's plasma stream create an oval-shaped emission in the images, rather than a V-shape.
Astronomers are now trying to find out why the C4 object creates exactly such radiation after colliding with the jet of a black hole. Perhaps this is related to the type of object and how directly the jet hits it.
