Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
4 Min Read NASA Finds ‘Sideways’ Black Hole Using Legacy Data, New Techniques
Image showing the structure of galaxy NGC 5084, with data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory overlaid on a visible-light image of the galaxy. Chandra’s data, shown in purple, revealed four plumes of hot gas emanating from a supermassive black hole rotating “tipped over” at the galaxy’s core. Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC, A. S. Borlaff, P. Marcum et al.; Optical full image: M. Pugh, B. Diaz; Image Processing: NASA/USRA/L. Proudfit NASA researchers have discovered a perplexing case of a black hole that appears to be “tipped over,” rotating in an unexpected direction relative to the galaxy surrounding it. That galaxy, called NGC 5084, has been known for years, but the sideways secret of its central black hole lay hidden in old data archives. The discovery was made possible by new image analysis techniques developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley to take a fresh look at archival data from the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Using the new methods, astronomers at Ames unexpectedly found four long plumes of plasma – hot, charged gas – emanating from NGC 5084. One pair of plumes extends above and below the plane of the galaxy. A surprising second pair, forming an “X” shape with the first, lies in the galaxy plane itself. Hot gas plumes are not often spotted in galaxies, and typically only one or two are present.
The method revealing such unexpected characteristics for galaxy NGC 5084 was developed by Ames research scientist Alejandro Serrano Borlaff and colleagues to detect low-brightness X-ray emissions in data from the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope. What they saw in the Chandra data seemed so strange that they immediately looked to confirm it, digging into the data archives of other telescopes and requesting new observations from two powerful ground-based observatories.
Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy NGC 5084’s core. A dark, vertical line near the center shows the curve of a dusty disk orbiting the core, whose presence suggests a supermassive black hole within. The disk and black hole share the same orientation, fully tipped over from the horizontal orientation of the galaxy.NASA/STScI, M. A. Malkan, B. Boizelle, A.S. Borlaff. HST WFPC2, WFC3/IR/UVIS. The surprising second set of plumes was a strong clue this galaxy housed a supermassive black hole, but there could have been other explanations. Archived data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile then revealed another quirk of NGC 5084: a small, dusty, inner disk turning about the center of the galaxy. This, too, suggested the presence of a black hole there, and, surprisingly, it rotates at a 90-degree angle to the rotation of the galaxy overall; the disk and black hole are, in a sense, lying on their sides.
The follow-up analyses of NGC 5084 allowed the researchers to examine the same galaxy using a broad swath of the electromagnetic spectrum – from visible light, seen by Hubble, to longer wavelengths observed by ALMA and the Expanded Very Large Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory near Socorro, New Mexico.
“It was like seeing a crime scene with multiple types of light,” said Borlaff, who is also the first author on the paper reporting the discovery. “Putting all the pictures together revealed that NGC 5084 has changed a lot in its recent past.”
It was like seeing a crime scene with multiple types of light.
Alejandro Serrano Borlaff
NASA Research Scientist
“Detecting two pairs of X-ray plumes in one galaxy is exceptional,” added Pamela Marcum, an astrophysicist at Ames and co-author on the discovery. “The combination of their unusual, cross-shaped structure and the ‘tipped-over,’ dusty disk gives us unique insights into this galaxy’s history.”
Typically, astronomers expect the X-ray energy emitted from large galaxies to be distributed evenly in a generally sphere-like shape. When it’s not, such as when concentrated into a set of X-ray plumes, they know a major event has, at some point, disturbed the galaxy.
Possible dramatic moments in its history that could explain NGC 5084’s toppled black hole and double set of plumes include a collision with another galaxy and the formation of a chimney of superheated gas breaking out of the top and bottom of the galactic plane.
More studies will be needed to determine what event or events led to the current strange structure of this galaxy. But it is already clear that the never-before-seen architecture of NGC 5084 was only discovered thanks to archival data – some almost three decades old – combined with novel analysis techniques.
The paper presenting this research was published Dec. 18 in The Astrophysical Journal. The image analysis method developed by the team – called Selective Amplification of Ultra Noisy Astronomical Signal, or SAUNAS – was described in The Astrophysical Journal in May 2024.
For news media:
Members of the news media interested in covering this topic should reach out to the NASA Ames newsroom.
Share
Details
Last Updated Dec 18, 2024 Related Terms
Black Holes Ames Research Center Ames Research Center's Science Directorate Astrophysics Chandra X-Ray Observatory Galaxies Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research General Hubble Space Telescope Marshall Astrophysics Marshall Science Research & Projects Marshall Space Flight Center Missions NASA Centers & Facilities Science & Research Supermassive Black Holes The Universe Explore More
4 min read Space Gardens
Article 18 mins ago 8 min read NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Looks to Thrive in 2025
Article 1 hour ago 4 min read NASA Open Science Reveals Sounds of Space
NASA has a long history of translating astronomy data into beautiful images that are beloved…
Article 1 hour ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By NASA
X-ray: NASA/CXC; Infrared: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeilder, E.Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand Since antiquity, wreaths have symbolized the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It is fitting then that one of the best places for astronomers to learn more about the stellar lifecycle resembles a giant holiday wreath itself.
The star cluster NGC 602 lies on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, about 200,000 light-years from Earth. The stars in NGC 602 have fewer heavier elements compared to the Sun and most of the rest of the galaxy. Instead, the conditions within NGC 602 mimic those for stars found billions of years ago when the universe was much younger.
This new image combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with a previously released image from the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope. The dark ring-like outline of the wreath seen in Webb data (represented as orange, yellow, green, and blue) is made up of dense clouds of filled dust.
Meanwhile, X-rays from Chandra (red) show young, massive stars that are illuminating the wreath, sending high-energy light into interstellar space. These X-rays are powered by winds flowing from the young, massive stars that are sprinkled throughout the cluster. The extended cloud in the Chandra data likely comes from the overlapping X-ray glow of thousands of young, low-mass stars in the cluster.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand In addition to this cosmic wreath, a new version of the “Christmas tree cluster” is also now available. Like NGC 602, NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars between one and five million years old. (For comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old — about 1,000 times older.) In this image of NGC 2264, which is much closer than NGC 602 at a distance of about 2,500 light-years from Earth, Chandra data (red, purple, blue, and white) has been combined with optical data (green and violet) captured from by astrophotographer Michael Clow from his telescope in Arizona in November 2024.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
Visual Description
This release includes two composite images, each featuring a star cluster that strongly resembles holiday greenery.
The first image depicts star cluster NGC 602 in vibrant and festive colors. The cluster includes a giant dust cloud ring, shown in greens, yellows, blues, and oranges. The green hues and feathery edges of the ring cloud create the appearance of a wreath made of evergreen boughs. Hints of red representing X-rays provide shading, highlighting layers within the wreath-like ring cloud.
The image is aglow with specks and dots of colorful, festive light, in blues, golds, whites, oranges, and reds. These lights represent stars within the cluster. Some of the lights gleam with diffraction spikes, while others emit a warm, diffuse glow. Upon closer inspection, many of the glowing specks have spiraling arms, indicating that they are, in fact, distant galaxies.
The second image in today’s release is a new depiction of NGC 2264, known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster”. Here, wispy green clouds in a conical shape strongly resemble an evergreen tree. Tiny specks of white, blue, purple, and red light, stars within the cluster, dot the structure, turning the cloud into a festive, cosmic Christmas tree!
News Media Contact
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
Explore More
7 min read NASA’s Webb Finds Planet-Forming Disks Lived Longer in Early Universe
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope just solved a conundrum by proving a controversial finding made…
Article 1 day ago 2 min read Hubble Images a Grand Spiral
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the glorious spiral galaxy NGC 5643, which is…
Article 4 days ago 4 min read NASA Successfully Integrates Roman Mission’s Telescope, Instruments
Article 5 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By European Space Agency
Video: 00:04:04 English Paxi explores ice
Join Paxi on an adventure to the North and South poles, to learn more about ice and its role in keeping Earth cool.
Italian Paxi osserva il ghiaccio
Unisciti a Paxi in un'avventura ai poli Nord e Sud, per saperne di più sul ghiaccio e sul suo ruolo nel mantenere la Terra fresca.
German Paxi erforscht das Eis
Begleiten Sie Paxi auf ein Abenteuer zum Nord- und Südpol, um mehr über Eis und seine Rolle bei der Kühlung der Erde zu erfahren.
French Paxi explore la glace
Rejoignez Paxi dans une aventure aux pôles Nord et Sud, pour en savoir plus sur la glace et son rôle dans le refroidissement de la Terre.
Spanish Paxi explora el hielo
Únete a Paxi en una aventura a los polos Norte y Sur, para aprender más sobre el hielo y su papel en mantener la Tierra fría.
Portuguese Paxi explora o gelo
Junte-se a Paxi numa aventura aos pólos Norte e Sul, para aprender mais sobre o gelo e o seu papel na manutenção da Terra fresca.
Greek Ο Πάξι εξερευνά τον πάγο
Ελάτε μαζί με τον Paxi σε μια περιπέτεια στο Βόρειο και το Νότιο Πόλο, για να μάθετε περισσότερα για τον πάγο και το ρόλο του στη διατήρηση της ψύξης της Γης.
Polish Paxi bada lód
Dołącz do Paxi podczas przygody na biegunie północnym i południowym, aby dowiedzieć się więcej o lodzie i jego roli w chłodzeniu Ziemi.
Swedish Paxi utforskar is
Följ med Paxi på ett äventyr till Nord- och Sydpolen för att lära dig mer om is och dess roll för att hålla jorden sval.
Norwegian Paxi utforsker is
Bli med Paxi på et eventyr til Nord- og Sydpolen for å lære mer om is og dens rolle i å holde jorden kjølig.
Danish Paxi udforsker is
Tag med Paxi på eventyr til Nord- og Sydpolen for at lære mere om is og dens rolle i at holde Jorden kølig.
Romanian Paxi explorează gheață
Alăturați-vă lui Paxi într-o aventură la polii Nord și Sud, pentru a afla mai multe despre gheață și rolul său în menținerea Pământului rece.
Finnish Paxi tutkii jäätä
Lähde Paxin mukaan seikkailulle pohjois- ja etelänavoille ja opi lisää jäästä ja sen roolista maapallon viileänä pitämisessä.
Estonian Paxi avastab jääd
Liitu Paxiga seiklusel põhja- ja lõunapoolusele, et õppida rohkem jääst ja selle rollist Maa jahedana hoidmisel.
Czech Paxi zkoumá led
Vydejte se s Paxi na dobrodružnou výpravu na severní a jižní pól, abyste se dozvěděli více o ledu a jeho úloze při udržování chladu na Zemi.
Dutch Paxi onderzoekt ijs
Ga mee met Paxi op avontuur naar de Noord- en Zuidpool om meer te leren over ijs en de rol die ijs speelt bij het koel houden van de aarde.
View the full article
-
By NASA
NASA/CXC/SAO/D. Bogensberger et al; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk; Even matter ejected by black holes can run into objects in the dark. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found an unusual mark from a giant black hole’s powerful jet striking an unidentified object in its path.
The discovery was made in a galaxy called Centaurus A (Cen A), located about 12 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers have long studied Cen A because it has a supermassive black hole in its center sending out spectacular jets that stretch out across the entire galaxy. The black hole launches this jet of high-energy particles not from inside the black hole, but from intense gravitational and magnetic fields around it.
The image shows low-energy X-rays seen by Chandra represented in pink, medium-energy X-rays in purple, and the highest-energy X-rays in blue.
In this latest study, researchers determined that the jet is — at least in certain spots — moving at close to the speed of light. Using the deepest X-ray image ever made of Cen A, they also found a patch of V-shaped emission connected to a bright source of X-rays, something that had not been seen before in this galaxy.
Called C4, this source is located close to the path of the jet from the supermassive black hole and is highlighted in the inset. The arms of the “V” are at least about 700 light-years long. For context, the nearest star to Earth is about 4 light-years away.
Source C4 in the Centaurus A galaxy.NASA/CXC/SAO/D. Bogensberger et al; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk; While the researchers have ideas about what is happening, the identity of the object being blasted is a mystery because it is too distant for its details to be seen, even in images from the current most powerful telescopes.
The incognito object being rammed may be a massive star, either by itself or with a companion star. The X-rays from C4 could be caused by the collision between the particles in the jet and the gas in a wind blowing away from the star. This collision can generate turbulence, causing a rise in the density of the gas in the jet. This, in turn, ignites the X-ray emission seen with Chandra.
The shape of the “V,” however, is not completely understood. The stream of X-rays trailing behind the source in the bottom arm of the “V” is roughly parallel to the jet, matching the picture of turbulence causing enhanced X-ray emission behind an obstacle in the path of the jet. The other arm of the “V” is harder to explain because it has a large angle to the jet, and astronomers are unsure what could explain that.
This is not the first time astronomers have seen a black hole jet running into other objects in Cen A. There are several other examples where a jet appears to be striking objects — possibly massive stars or gas clouds. However, C4 stands out from these by having the V-shape in X-rays, while other obstacles in the jet’s path produce elliptical blobs in the X-ray image. Chandra is the only X-ray observatory capable of seeing this feature. Astronomers are trying to determine why C4 has this different post-contact appearance, but it could be related to the type of object that the jet is striking or how directly the jet is striking it.
A paper describing these results appears in a recent issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The authors of the study are David Bogensberger (University of Michigan), Jon M. Miller (University of Michigan), Richard Mushotsky (University of Maryland), Niel Brandt (Penn State University), Elias Kammoun (University of Toulouse, France), Abderahmen Zogbhi (University of Maryland), and Ehud Behar (Israel Institute of Technology).
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
Visual Description
This release features a series of images focusing on a collision between a jet of matter blasting out of a distant black hole, and a mysterious, incognito object.
At the center of the primary image is a bright white dot, encircled by a hazy purple blue ring tinged with neon blue. This is the black hole at the heart of the galaxy called Centaurus A. Shooting out of the black hole is a stream of ejected matter. This stream, or jet, shoots in two opposite directions. It shoots toward us, widening as it reaches our upper left, and away from us, growing thinner and more faint as it recedes toward the lower right. In the primary image, the jet resembles a trail of hot pink smoke. Other pockets of granular, hot pink gas can be found throughout the image. Here, pink represents low energy X-rays observed by Chandra, purple represents medium energy X-rays, and blue represents high energy X-rays.
Near our lower right, where the jet is at its thinnest, is a distinct pink “V”, its arms opening toward our lower right. This mark is understood to be the result of the jet striking an unidentified object that lay in its path. A labeled version of the image highlights this region, and names the point of the V-shape, the incognito object, C4. A wide view version of the image is composited with optical data.
At the distance of Cen A, the arms of the V-shape appear rather small. In fact, each arm is at least 700 light-years long. The jet itself is 30,000 light-years long. For context, the nearest star to the Sun is about 4 light-years away.
News Media Contact
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
View the full article
-
By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) has helped astronomers better understand the shapes of structures essential to a black hole – specifically, the disk of material swirling around it, and the shifting plasma region called the corona.
The stellar-mass black hole, part of the binary system Swift J1727.8-1613, was discovered in the summer of 2023 during an unusual brightening event that briefly caused it to outshine nearly all other X-ray sources. It is the first of its kind to be observed by IXPE as it goes through the start, peak, and conclusion of an X-ray outburst like this.
This illustration shows NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft, at lower left, observing the newly discovered binary system Swift J1727.8-1613 from a distance. At the center is a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk, shown in yellow and orange, and a hot, shifting corona, shown in blue. The black hole is siphoning off gas from its companion star, seen behind the black hole as an orange disk. Jets of fast-moving, superheated particles stream from both poles of the black hole. Author: Marie Novotná Swift J1727 is the subject of a series of new studies published in The Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy & Astrophysics. Scientists say the findings provide new insight into the behavior and evolution of black hole X-ray binary systems.
“This outburst evolved incredibly quickly,” said astrophysicist Alexandra Veledina, a permanent researcher at the University of Turku, Finland. “From our first detection of the outburst, it took Swift J1727 just days to peak. By then, IXPE and numerous other telescopes and instruments were already collecting data. It was exhilarating to observe the outburst all the way through its return to inactivity.”
Until late 2023, Swift J1727 briefly remained brighter than the Crab Nebula, the standard X-ray “candle” used to provide a baseline for units of X-ray brightness. Such outbursts are not unusual among binary star systems, but rarely do they occur so brightly and so close to home – just 8,800 light years from Earth. The binary system was named in honor of the Swift Gamma-ray Burst Mission which initially detected the outburst with its Burst Alert Telescope on Aug. 24, 2023, resulting in the discovery of the black hole.
X-ray binary systems typically include two close-proximity stars at different stages of their lifecycle. When the elder star runs out of fuel, it explodes in a supernova, leaving behind a neutron star, white dwarf, or black hole. In the case of Swift J1727, the powerful gravity of the resulting black hole stripped material from its companion star, heating the material to more than 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit and producing a vast outpouring of X-rays. This matter formed an accretion disk and can include a superheated corona. At the poles of the black hole, matter also can escape from the binary system in the form of relativistic jets.
IXPE, which has helped NASA and researchers study all these phenomena, specializes in X-ray polarization, the characteristic of light that helps map the shape and structure of such ultra-powerful energy sources, illuminating their inner workings even when they’re too distant for us to see directly.
Because light itself can’t escape their gravity, we can’t see black holes. We can only observe what is happening around them and draw conclusions about the mechanisms and processes that occur there. IXPE is crucial to that work.
/wp-content/plugins/nasa-blocks/assets/images/article-templates/anne-mcclain.jpg Alexandra Veledina
NASA Astrophysicist
“Because light itself can’t escape their gravity, we can’t see black holes,” Veledina said. “We can only observe what is happening around them and draw conclusions about the mechanisms and processes that occur there. IXPE is crucial to that work.”
Two of the IXPE-based studies of Swift J1727, led by Veledina and Adam Ingram, a researcher at Newcastle University in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, focused on the first phases of the outburst. During the brief period of months when the source became exceptionally bright, the corona was the main source of observed X-ray radiation.
“IXPE documented polarization of X-ray radiation traveling along the estimated direction of the black hole jet, hence the hot plasma is extended in the accretion disk plane,” Veledina said. “Similar findings were reported in the persistent black hole binary Cygnus X-1, so this finding helps verify that the geometry is the same among short-lived eruptive systems.”
The team further monitored how polarization values changed during Swift J1727’s peak outburst. Those conclusions matched findings simultaneously obtained during studies of other energy bands of electromagnetic radiation.
A third and a fourth study, led by researchers Jiří Svoboda and Jakub Podgorný, both of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, focused on X-ray polarization at the second part of the Swift J1727’s outburst and its return to a highly energetic state several months later. For Podgorný’s previous efforts using IXPE data and black hole simulations, he recently was awarded the Czech Republic’s top national prize for a Ph.D. thesis in the natural sciences.
The polarization data indicated that the geometry of the corona did not change significantly between the beginning and the end of the outburst, even though the system evolved in the meantime and the X-ray brightness dropped dramatically in the later energetic state.
The results represent a significant step forward in our understanding of the changing shapes and structures of accretion disk, corona, and related structures at black holes in general. The study also demonstrates IXPE’s value as a tool for determining how all these elements of the system are connected, as well as its potential to collaborate with other observatories to monitor sudden, dramatic changes in the cosmos.
“Further observations of matter near black holes in binary systems are needed, but the successful first observing campaign of Swift J1727.8–1613 in different states is the best start of a new chapter we could imagine,” said Michal Dovčiak, co-author of the series of papers and leader of the IXPE working group on stellar-mass black holes, who also conducts research at the Czech Academy of Sciences.
More about IXPE
IXPE, which continues to provide unprecedented data enabling groundbreaking discoveries about celestial objects across the universe, is a joint NASA and Italian Space Agency mission with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.
Learn more about IXPE’s ongoing mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/ixpe
Elizabeth Landau
NASA Headquarters
elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov
202-358-0845
Lane Figueroa
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Dec 06, 2024 Related Terms
IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) Marshall Science Research & Projects Marshall Space Flight Center Explore More
3 min read NASA, USAID Launch SERVIR Central American Hub
Article 7 mins ago 4 min read NASA AI, Open Science Advance Disaster Research and Recovery
By Lauren Perkins When you think of NASA, disasters such as hurricanes may not be…
Article 1 week ago 4 min read NASA Marshall Thermal Engineering Lab Provides Key Insight to Human Landing System
Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.