CXC: Ricocheting Black Hole Jet Discovered by Chandra

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CXC: Ricocheting Black Hole Jet Discovered by Chandra

Post by bystander » Thu Jan 10, 2019 5:08 pm

Cygnus A: Ricocheting Black Hole Jet Discovered by Chandra
NASA | MSFC | SAO | Chandra X-ray Observatory | 2019 Jan 09
Click to view full size image 1 or image 2
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Columbia Univ./A. Johnson et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI
A ricocheting jet blasting from a giant black hole has been captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, as reported in our latest press release. In this composite image of Cygnus A, X-rays from Chandra (red, green, and blue that represent low, medium and high energy X-rays) are combined with an optical view from the Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxies and stars in the same field of view. Chandra's data reveal the presence of powerful jets of particles and electromagnetic energy that have shot out from the black hole. The jet on the left has slammed into a wall of hot gas, then ricocheted to punch a hole in a cloud of energetic particles, before it collides with another part of the gas wall.

A labeled version outlines the key features described above. The main figure shows the location of the supermassive black hole, the jets, the point that the jet on the left ricocheted off a wall of intergalactic gas ("hotspot E"), and the point where the jet then struck the intergalactic gas a second time ("hotspot D"). The inset contains a close-up view of the hotspots on the left and the hole punched by the rebounding jet, which surrounds hotspot E. The image in the inset combines X-rays from all three energy ranges to give the greatest sensitivity to show fine structures such as the hole.

The hole is visible because the path of the rebounding jet between hotspots E and D is almost directly along the line of sight to Earth, as shown by the schematic figure depicting the view of Cygnus A from above. A similar rebounding of the jet likely occurred between hotspots A and B but the hole is not visible because the path is not along the Earth's line of sight. ...
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