Most Powerful Eruption In The Universe Discovered

[Human]

All I want to say is "WOW"

 

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/05_releas...ess_010505.html

 

Astronomers have found the most powerful eruption seen in the Universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. A supermassive black hole generated this eruption by growing at a remarkable rate. This discovery shows the enormous appetite of large black holes, and the profound impact they have on their surroundings.

 

The huge eruption is seen in a Chandra image of the hot, X-ray emitting gas of a galaxy cluster called MS 0735.6+7421. Two vast cavities extend away from the supermassive black hole in the cluster's central galaxy. The eruption - which has lasted for 100 million years and is still going - has generated the energy equivalent to hundreds of millions of gamma-ray bursts.

 

his event was caused by gravitational energy release as enormous amounts of matter fell toward a black hole. Most of the matter was swallowed, but some of it was violently ejected before being captured by the black hole. "I was stunned to find that a mass of about 300 million Suns was swallowed," said Brian McNamara of Ohio University in Athens, lead author of the study that appears in the January 6, 2005 issue of Nature. "This is almost as massive as the supermassive black hole that swallowed it."

 

Astronomers are not sure where such large amounts of matter came from. One theory is that gas from the host galaxy catastrophically cooled and was then swallowed by the black hole.

 

The energy released shows that the black hole in MS 0735 has grown very dramatically during this eruption. Previous studies suggest that other large black holes have grown very little in the recent past, and that only smaller black holes are still growing quickly.

 

"This new result is as surprising as it is exciting", said co-author Paul Nulsen of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics. "This black hole is feasting when it should be fasting."

 

Radio emission within the cavities shows that jets from the black hole erupted to create the cavities. Gas is being pushed away from the black hole at supersonic speeds over a distance of about a million light years. The mass of the displaced gas equals about a trillion Suns, more than the mass of all the stars in the Milky Way.