Researchers noticed a set of powerful jets near a black hole in deep space.
Almost every galaxy contains a supermassive black hole, comparable to several billion solar masses, at its center, a European Southern Observatory news release reported.
The majority of the now-quiet black holes were once extremely active. They would suck in any matter that came into their path, and expel matter through powerful jets.
A team of international researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to look at a fairly calm black hole in a galaxy called NGC 1433 and an active object in the far distance called PKS 1830-211.
"ALMA has revealed a surprising spiral structure in the molecular gas close to the [center] of NGC 1433," Françoise Combes (Observatoire de Paris, France), who is the lead author of the first paper, said. "This explains how the material is flowing in to fuel the black hole. With the sharp new observations from ALMA, we have discovered a jet of material flowing away from the black hole, extending for only 150 light-years. This is the smallest such molecular outflow ever observed in an external galaxy."
The newly discovered outflow could explain how black holes can pause the process of a star forming and control the size of the central bulge of the universe.
"In PKS 1830-211, Ivan Martí-Vidal of Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden and his team also observed a supermassive black hole with a jet, but a much brighter and more active one in the early Universe. It is unusual because its brilliant light passes a massive intervening galaxy on its way to Earth, and is split into two images by gravitational lensing," the news release reported.
Every once in a while these supermassive black holes take a large gulp of mass.
"The ALMA observation of this case of black hole indigestion has been completely serendipitous. We were observing PKS 1830-211 for another purpose, and then we spotted subtle changes of [color] and intensity among the images of the gravitational lens. A very careful look at this unexpected [behavior] led us to the conclusion that we were observing, just by a very lucky chance, right at the time when fresh new matter entered into the jet base of the black hole," Sebastien Muller, a co-author of the second paper on the subject, said.
Researchers were surprised to find NASA's Gamma-ray Space Telescope had picked up a clear gamma ray signal of the violent event.
"This is the first time that such a clear connection between gamma rays and [submillimeter] radio waves has been established as coming from the real base of a black hole's jet," Muller said.
The researchers are now turning their sights to other galaxies.
"There is still a lot to be learned about how black holes can create these huge energetic jets of matter and radiation," Martí-Vidal, said. "But the new results, obtained even before ALMA was completed, show that it is a uniquely powerful tool for probing these jets - and the discoveries are just beginning!"
WATCH:
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/F. Combes
