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'Death Spiral' Around a Black Hole Yields Tantalizing Evidence of an Event Horizon


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The Hubble telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the existence of black holes by observing how matter disappears when it falls beyond the "event horizon," the boundary between a black hole and the outside universe. Astronomers found their evidence by watching the fading and disappearance of pulses of ultraviolet light from clumps of hot gas swirling around a massive, compact object called Cygnus XR-1. This activity suggests that the hot gas fell into a black hole.

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      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
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      Details
      Last Updated Dec 12, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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      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
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