NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured an extraordinary sight - an "H" shaped structure in the hot gas surrounding a giant black hole at the heart of the massive elliptical galaxy Messier 84 (M84).
This X-ray map of multimillion-degree gas around the galaxy provides a striking new perspective of the black hole.
Massive H in Space!
As the gas gets sucked into the immense gravitational force of a black hole, some of it plunges into the void, lost forever in its pitch-black embrace.
But do not worry, some gas manages to break free from the clutches of the black hole, hurtling outwards like a cosmic cannonball, leaving a trail of particles in its wake.
Now, imagine you're looking at M84, a galaxy far, far away. From our perspective on Earth, the orientation of the jets of gas and the shape of the surrounding gas combine to create a stunning and familiar sight - a massive "H" in space!
But do not be fooled, this is not some extraterrestrial alphabet or message, it is just a trick of the mind called pareidolia. Our brains are wired to see patterns and shapes in everything we look at, whether it is a passing cloud or a rocky landscape, and it seems the vast expanse of space is no exception.
This H-shaped structure in M84 is truly colossal, measuring a whopping 40,000 light-years tall and half the width of the Milky Way galaxy.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory captured this spectacular phenomenon by mapping the hot gas that surrounds the black hole.
The resulting image is a stunning pink glow that reveals the intricate details of the gas's behavior, stretching out to within just 100 light-years of the black hole itself.
Read Also: NASA Telescopes Capture Bright Galaxy With Supermassive Black Hole at Its Heart
Bondi Accretion Model
Researchers used the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the VLA to study M84 and found that the black hole's jets may have a greater impact on the hot gas's flow toward the black hole than its gravitational pull.
They estimated that the gas is falling toward the black hole along the direction of the jet at a rate 500 times greater than from other directions, which could be due to the cavities lifting the gas along the jet's direction.
The study tested the Bondi accretion model, where matter falls towards a black hole at the same rate from all directions, but found that it is not occurring in M84.
M84 and Messier 87 (M87) are both part of the Virgo Cluster, with the latter being famous for containing the first black hole imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope network.
Astronomers can observe detailed features in Chandra images of gas falling into supermassive black holes only for those in M84, M87, NGC 3115, and NGC 1600 since they are near and massive enough.
Unlike M87, M84's X-ray point source from the material closest to the black hole is more than ten times fainter, enabling more in-depth analysis of the gas falling into the black hole, which is farther out and not obscured by the X-ray brightness of the point source.
This exciting discovery was published in arXiv.
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