A black hole with a mass of 55 million suns
Posted 05.23.2011 at 10:40 am
13 Comments
Centaurus A Black Hole Jets
This composite of visible, microwave (orange) and X-ray (blue) data reveals the jets and radio-emitting lobes emanating from Centaurus A's central black hole.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
A gigantic black hole at the center of one of the Milky Way’s close neighbors is spewing jets of material into the cosmos, hurling gamma rays and radio waves into interstellar space. Now researchers in the U.S. and Germany peered at the galaxy with the closest-ever resolution, seeing galactic features up to 15 light-days across. That’s incredibly close for a galaxy 12 million miles away.
The black hole at the center of Centaurus A weighs in at 55 million suns and is the likely source of the huge gamma ray bubbles spotted by the Fermi Large Area Telescope last year, scientists said.
The black hole is invisible in a radio image of the galactic core, but the jets are quite apparent, making Centaurus A look like a spinning top. The jets feed huge lobes of radio-emitting gas, which also reach far beyond the visible galaxy.
Centaurus A Gas Lobes: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
To make this picture, scientists combined data from observatories on four continents: the Australian Long Baseline Array, the Hartebeesthoek antennae in South Africa, the 6 m Transportable Integrated Geodetic Observatory in Chile, and the 9 m German Antarctic Receiving Station in O’Higgins, Antarctica.
This is neat because scientists have never seen a galaxy at such high resolution before. Understanding how these jets radiate could help astronomers learn how black holes function and contribute to the apparently ubiquitous gamma radiation permeating the cosmos.
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Wow, according to the article, this neighboring galaxy is only 12 million miles away. So it's closer to us than our own sun... Forget about cell phone radiation, these gamma rays seem much worse for our health!
While I didn't notice a help wanted sign, apparently PopSci is in need of a proof reader or two.
12 million miles does NOT equal 12 million light-years. You're off by a factor of about 6 trillion.
-IMP ;) :)
Wow, amazing images...
So I'm confused... Earth is just over 90 million miles from the sun, so was it supposed to say 12 million light years away... or 12 billion miles? Not that my mind can truly distinguish one from the other, they are both freaking huge numbers!
12 million light years. pretty sure 12 billions miles is still within what we consider our own solar system.
Truly epic fail.
Is this what you get for persisting in using archaic imperial measurements, unlike the rest of the scientific world?
And this site has to have the world's suckiest spam filters. It even seems to spit the dummy at using the name of this site.
Thing I have never understood is how anything get escape a black hole. All the crap I have seen and read says it sucks time and space in, however xrays and gamma rays jets can escape. Is it because these particles are not quite in the black holes event horizon but just outside it and a shock-wave from stars etc being eaten causes the outer particles not in the event horizon to pulse out/escape?
12 million lightyears or mils doesn't matter. The magazine is called Popular Science so it's for the "populus", meaning ordinary people. For instance a redneck readng the article (if he can read) will not care as long as it's not within 12 miles from his trailer.
First time in years that I've been able to post...
ordinary people. For instance a redneck readng the article (if he can read) will not care as long as it's not within 12 miles from his trailer.
can someone please explain to me what this has to do with science, if we as a collective ever do find another life form beside us, do you think people like peter10 are a good representative. regardless of my geographical situation, these rednecks are part of a place called The United States of America. there is no excuse for iggnorance.
BTW does anyone else see something wrong with this sentence?
For instance a redneck readng the article (if he can read)
This is the dumb dumber and dumbest of material I have read in a long time.. If it pulls everything in it, it would soon be filled up...How anybody in their right mind could think up this marlarky is beyong me... How did a black hole originate??? Now the evolutionist would say there was a big bang and swoosh there's a black hole.... LOL...
All though it may be an epic fail it does happen from time to time..to correct their mistake Centaurus A is 12 million light years away...im just saying.