Astronomers Discover Black Holes Can "Create" Their Own Meals, Study Shows.

In a groundbreaking study, astronomers have unveiled new evidence that the universe's most massive black holes can influence their own feeding process by generating outbursts that help cool down gas. Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the team has made significant progress in understanding how black holes feed on gas through a self-sustaining cycle.

The research focused on seven clusters of galaxies, which house the largest galaxies and the most massive black holes, with masses ranging from millions to billions of times the size of our Sun. These black holes are known to produce powerful jets driven by the consumption of gas. The new findings suggest that these jets not only feed the black holes, but also play a role in regulating the temperature of surrounding gas, facilitating the black holes' continued feeding.

Images captured by Chandra and VLT show the Perseus and Centaurus galaxy clusters, with Chandra’s X-ray data in blue revealing hot gas filaments and VLT’s optical data in red highlighting cooler regions. The research points to a model in which outbursts from the black holes lead to cooling in the hot gas, which then forms warm, narrow filaments. This cooling process is triggered by turbulence in the gas, which aids in directing the gas toward the black holes.

As these filaments of warm gas flow toward the centers of the galaxies, they provide fuel for the black holes, triggering further outbursts. This creates a cyclical process that helps sustain the black holes’ feeding, as more gas cools and is consumed.

A key aspect of the study is the discovery of a correlation between the brightness of hot and warm gas filaments at the centers of galaxy clusters. Where the hot gas is brightest, the warm gas is also more luminous—providing crucial support for the proposed model.

These filaments play a dual role, not only feeding black holes but also potentially influencing the formation of new stars. The study introduced an innovative technique to isolate the hot filaments from other gas structures, such as large cavities formed by the black hole’s jets, making these findings possible.

In a surprising twist, the researchers found similarities between these filaments and the long tails of jellyfish galaxies, which experience gas stripping as they move through intergalactic gas. This unexpected cosmic connection suggests that similar processes may be at work in both phenomena.

Led by Valeria Olivares from the University of Santiago de Chile, the study was published Monday in Nature Astronomy and involved international collaboration between scientists from the U.S., Chile, Australia, Canada, and Italy. The research benefited from the advanced capabilities of the MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) instrument on the VLT, which provides detailed 3D views of the universe.

NASA’s Chandra program, managed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center, facilitated this pioneering study.

The findings open up new avenues for understanding not only the feeding behavior of black holes but also their role in galaxy evolution, gas dynamics, and star formation across the universe.

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