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Black hole Sagittarius A* influences the creation of galaxies
Sagittarius A* is a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
unbranded – Worthy of interest
A team of scientists used the James Webb Space Telescope to peer through the veil of dust surrounding a distant supermassive black hole, revealing that the energy around the hole comes from jets of gas colliding at close to the speed of light.
The Webb telescope, the most powerful ever made, targeted the giant black hole at the center of a galaxy known as ESO 428-G14, about 70 million light-years away, according to Space.com.
Like our own Milky Way galaxy, a supermassive black hole sits at its center, swallowing up all matter in its path. A black hole is an area whose gravitational pull is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape its grip.
The team pointed the telescope at a hot cloud of dust and gas swirling around the black hole. What they saw revealed that the energy contained in the cloud was generating jets of gas that were crashing into each other at the speed of light, heating up the veil of dust. The team found that dust near the black hole was spreading along the jets of gas, which could be responsible for the shape of the dust scientists see around the black hole.
According to findings from the Webb telescope, jets of gas surrounding a supermassive black hole can extend from a few light-years to distances beyond the limits of their home galaxy.
Scientists previously thought that the energy heating the dust clouds came from radiation from the black hole itself.
“We didn’t expect to see radio jets causing this kind of damage. And yet, they do!” said David Rosario, a senior lecturer at Newcastle University and co-author of the study, in a press release issued by the university on Tuesday.
The discovery is the result of a project called the Galactic Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS), which aims to uncover the secrets of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. The team published its findings in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on Tuesday.
Never before seen images: NASA Releases Stunning Images of Nebulae and Galaxies in Space
Supermassive black holes at the center of almost all galaxies are devouring planets and stars
Scientists now believe that nearly all galaxies have supermassive black holes, also called active galactic nuclei (AGNs), at their centers. These black holes grow by swallowing up planets, stars, gas, and even other black holes that get in their way.
Supermassive black holes also feed on the cloud of rotating particles and gas surrounding them, also called an accretion disk.
Light cannot escape from a black hole, making it impossible to observe it directly through a telescope. But scientists can learn more about black holes by turning their gaze toward these clouds of gas.
The Webb telescope uses infrared waves to gather information about these clouds and allows scientists to get a glimpse into the center of the galaxy.
Can you fall into a black hole? NASA simulations provide an answer
Supermassive black holes, the largest of these types of black holes, have a mass more than a million times that of our Sun, according to NASA. Researchers believe they may form next to their home galaxy. The first supermassive black holes likely formed shortly after the Big Bang gave birth to the universe.
