In this comparison, an apparently ordinary star field in optical light (above) is shown to be dramatically different when observed in X-rays (below). Chandra’s image of 3C438, the central galaxy within a massive cluster, reveals evidence for one of the most energetic events in the local Universe.
Following last month’s proving-inspired addition of a new article to the site (Does it matter?) which, among other things, suggests that black holes are massless, an interesting discovery has been reported by NASA.
“Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have found evidence for an “awesome upheaval” in a massive cluster of galaxies. A bright arc of ferociously hot gas extending more than two million light years requires one of the most energetic events ever detected.”
“The huge feature we detected in the cluster combined with its high temperature (170 million°C) points to an exceptionally dramatic event in the nearby Universe,” says Ralph Kraft of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, leader of a team of astronomers involved in this research. “While we’re not sure what caused it, we have narrowed it down to a couple of exciting possibilities.”
“There is no reality in the absence of observation.”
Neils Bohr & Werner Heisenberg
Two possible explanations are offered. Either a collision between two large galaxies or a supermassive black hole. The observed data favours the latter explanation since there is only a single source for the massive emission of energy. The really interesting part comes right at the end.
“If this event was an outburst from a supermassive black hole, then it’s by far the most powerful one ever seen,” says team member Bill Forman, also from the Center for Astrophysics.
The phenomenal amount of energy involved implies a very large amount of mass swallowed by the black hole, about 30 billion times the Sun’s mass consumed over a period of 200 million years. The authors consider this rate of black hole growth implausible.
“These values have never been seen before and, truthfully, are hard to believe,” notes Kraft. Until these issues are sorted out, the awesome upheaval remains a mystery.
A radio map of 3C438 reveals jets spewing from the galaxy’s core – a sign of explosive activity.
It is indeed highly implausible that a black hole could have ‘swallowed’ such an incredible amount of matter, but then the whole idea of black holes swallowing and compressing matter to the extent suggested by the prevailing theory is rather implausible to begin with. It’s good to see that astrophysicists have now been brought to the point where a re-evaluation of present theory is apparently being demanded by this discovery.
“All life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward internal dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other.”
H P Lovecraft
