Cosmic 'Ghost': "Evidence of a supermassive black hole equal in power to a billion supernovas."

Daily Galaxy ^ | 9/4/10

[LibWhacker]

Mg20727753.800-1_300 NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory located a cosmic "ghost" that scientists think is evidence of a huge eruption produced by a supermassive black hole equal in power to a billion supernovas. The source, HDF 130, is over 10 billion light years away and existed at a time 3 billion years after the Big Bang, when galaxies and black holes were forming at a high rate. The X-ray ghost, so-called because a diffuse X-ray source has remained after other radiation from the outburst has died away, is in the Chandra Deep Field-North, one of the deepest X-ray images ever taken.

"We'd seen this fuzzy object a few years ago, but didn't realize until now that we were seeing a ghost", said Andy Fabian of the Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. "It's not out there to haunt us, rather it's telling us something - in this case what was happening in this galaxy billions of year ago."

Fabian and colleagues think the X-ray glow from HDF 130 is evidence for a powerful outburst from its central black hole in the form of jets of energetic particles traveling at almost the speed of light. When the eruption was ongoing, it produced prodigious amounts of radio and X-radiation, but after several million years, the radio signal faded from view as the electrons radiated away their energy.

However, less energetic electrons can still produce X-rays by interacting with the pervasive sea of photons remaining from the Big Bang - the cosmic background radiation. Collisions between these electrons and the background photons can impart enough energy to the photons to boost them into the X-ray energy band. This process produces an extended X-ray source that lasts for another 30 million years or so.

"This ghost tells us about the black hole's eruption long after it has died," said co-author Scott Chapman, also of Cambridge University. "This means we don't have to catch the black holes in the act to witness the big impact they have."

This is the first X-ray ghost ever seen after the demise of radio-bright jets. Astronomers have observed extensive X-ray emission with a similar origin, but only from galaxies with radio emission on large scales, signifying continued eruptions. In HDF 130, only a point source is detected in radio images, coinciding with the massive elliptical galaxy seen in its optical image. This radio source indicates the presence of a growing supermassive black hole.

"This result hints that the X-ray sky should be littered with such ghosts," said co-author Caitlin Casey, also of Cambridge, "especially if black hole eruptions are as common as we think they are in the early Universe."

"Even after the ghost disappears, most of the energy from the black hole's eruption remains", said Fabian. "Because they're so powerful, these eruptions can have profound effects lasting for billions of years."

[LibWhacker]

Don't ask me! Had no idea black holes erupt. I knew they leaked and that spectacular things happen when they collide with other black holes, but I didn't know they erupted.

[El Sordo]

Innerestin’.

[dartuser]

Space Ghost will handle this ...

[JRandomFreeper]

This is too heavy for me. The gravity of the situation is overwhelming.

/johnny

[Viking2002]

This reminds me, in a oblique way, of the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale 'All Good Things'. Wouldn't it be a bear if we detected something that massive, having happened billions of years ago, and it was rippling through the universe one galaxy at a time, just 'snuffing out' everything as it goes? Kind of an inverted Big Bang, if you will. And this planet, this galaxy, had only a few million years left before it arrived, and there wouldn't be one thing the human race could do to stop it from one generation to the next. Even in the distant future, if humans mastered the ability to jump across titanic distances of space to outrun it, they would do so knowing they were living on borrowed time. Oh, to be a fly on the wall over the eons as history unfolded, just to see how civilization conducted itself as the clock ticked closer and closer to midnight.

Make for one helluva sci-fi series, anyway.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[Ken522]

So we’re seeing something that’s 10 billion years old - but what happend to this super-massive black hole? Did it just collapse in on itself and go “Poof!” What happend to all the matter it collected? And now Stephen Hawkins is telling everyone that will listen to him that Almighty God didn’t do any of this?

[windsorknot]

The NAACP finds the subject matter of this post highly offensive and racist.

[OCC]

a supermassive black hole equal in power to a billion supernovas.

Thats hugh and probably series.. to those close by.

[null and void]

Don’t be so dense.

[JRandomFreeper]

just to see how civilization conducted itself as the clock ticked closer and closer to midnight.

For a preview, stay up late this November 2nd. ;)

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

It's a weighty matter, and should be handled with some gravitas.

/johnny

[samtheman]

Who ya gonna call?

[TribalPrincess2U]

Good one! You get star.

[null and void]

Only to a point...

[Tolkien]

This is all quite singular.

[JRandomFreeper]

Being able to recognize the event before the horizon appears is critically and massively important. But either way, the point gets you, and you never get to the point.

/johnny

[Viking2002]

LOL Point taken.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[r9etb]

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

>> Thats hugh and probably series.. to those close by.<<

Those close by should prolly scarmable, don’t you think? :)

[JRandomFreeper]

Just because it's a cosmology thread that has been highjacked by punsters is no reason not to inject a little political positism into the mix. It's Saturday night, have a beer, take your pants off, and join in the hymns.

/johnny