极端的黑洞爆发

2020 March 11

An Extreme Black Hole Outburst
Image Credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/NRL/S. Giacintucci, et al., XMM-Newton: ESA/XMM-Newton; Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRT; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF; Text: Michael F. Corcoran (NASA, Catholic U., HEAPOW)

Explanation: Astronomers believe they have now found the most powerful example of a black hole outburst yet seen in our Universe. The composite, false-color featured image is of a cluster of galaxies in the constellation of Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer. The composite includes X-ray images (from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton) in purple, and a radio image (from India’s Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope) in blue (along with an infrared image of the galaxies and stars in the field in white for good measure). The dashed line marks the border of a cavity blown out by the supermassive black hole which lurks at the center of the galaxy marked by the cross. Radio emission fills this cavity. This big blowout is believed to be due to the black hole eating too much and experiencing a transient bout of “black hole nausea”, which resulted in the ejection of a powerful radio jet blasting into intergalactic space. The amount of energy needed to blow this cavity is equivalent to about 10 billion supernova explosions.

Tomorrow’s picture: open space

极端的黑洞爆发
影像来源及版权：X射线: Chandra：NASA/CXC/NRL/S. Giacintucci,et al.，XMM-Newton: ESA/XMM-Newton；射电：NCRA/TIFR/GMRT；红外：2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF；文本：Michael F. Corcoran (NASA, Catholic U.，HEAPOW)

说明：天文学家相信，他们已经找到了宇宙中迄今为止能量最高的黑洞爆发的例子。这张合成的伪彩色图像是蛇夫座的一个星系团。合成进来的图像包括以紫色显示的X射线图像（来自钱德拉X射线太空望远镜和XMM-牛顿太空望远镜）、以蓝色显示的射电图像（来自印度的大型米波射电望远镜）和以白色显示的星系和恒星的红外图像。虚线标志着一个被超大质量黑洞吹出的空腔的边界，这个黑洞潜伏在星系的中心，以十字标出。射电辐射充满了这个空腔。科学家认为，这次大的喷发是由于黑洞吃得太多，于是经历了一次短暂的“黑洞反胃”，导致一个强力的射电喷流喷射到星系际空间。吹起这个空腔所需要的能量相当于大约100亿次超新星爆发。

明日一图预告：open space