NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has obtained the most detailed image of a relativistic jet breaking off from the accretion disk of a black hole. However, the scientists in charge of the study are baffled. The photograph obtained shows how the column of ejected matter has impacted with an unknown object hundreds of light years long.
The black hole is located in Centaurus A (Cen A), one of the brightest galaxies that can be observed from Earth. This is between 10 and 11 million light years away. It is famous for having an active galactic nucleus, a clear sign that it hosts a supermassive gravitational phenomenon feeding on the matter around it. The jet that is ejected due to magnetic tension is composed of high-energy subatomic particles that travel at speeds close to light.
The particle jets that accompany some black holes can extend hundreds of light years away. They are not visible to the human eye, but they appear as soon as the sky is analyzed under the X-ray spectrum. With advanced instruments like Chandra, scientists immediately notice when an object is in the path of the jets of subatomic particles.
C4, the mysterious “V” shaped object
A part of Cen A’s jet has coincided with a “V” shaped flash which NASA describes as an emission patch connected to a bright X-ray source. The event, in its own words, had not been seen before in that galaxy. The mysterious V of Cen A is currently called C4. Each of its arms measures 700 light years long.
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