A jet of matter emanating from a supermassive black hole changes direction and points toward Earth. A research team is investigating the phenomenon.
Santiago de Chile – A supermassive one hides at the center of most galaxies black hole. Some of these gigantic objects are already known to researchers – but now a team led by researcher Lorena Hernández-García from the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics in Santiago de Chile has discovered an object that behaves unusually. “We started observing the galaxy because it had peculiar properties,” Hernández-García recalls. “Our hypothesis was that the relativistic jet from the supermassive black hole changed direction. To confirm this idea, we had to make a lot of observations,” explains the researcher.
Until now, the galaxy PBC J2333.9-2343, located 656 million light-years from Earth, was considered a radio galaxy. The orientation of the jets emanating from the black hole at the galaxy’s center determine how a galaxy is classified. In the case of PBC J2333.9-2343, both jets of matter so far have pointed towards the skyplane – a classic radio galaxy. But that has now changed. Now, one of the two jets is pointing straight at Earth, and the galaxy has been reclassified as a radio galaxy with a blazar at its center.
Black hole in the center of a galaxy suddenly changes direction
A blazar is an active galactic core with a jet pointing toward Earth. Blazars are objects of very high energy, they are considered the most powerful phenomena in the universe, says one Notice from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). In the case of the blazar at the center of galaxy PBC J2333.9-2343, the jet has drastically changed direction by an angle of up to 90 degrees; it is now pointed directly towards the earth.
With the jet now pointing toward Earth, the emission is amplified and becomes significantly more visible than the emission emanating from the rest of the galaxy. This leads to high-intensity flares that are stronger than those from other radio galaxies, according to the RAS. A study of the reclassified galaxy was published in trade journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society published.
Black hole jet now points toward Earth
Several telescopes, including the Effelsberg radio telescope at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, were used to observe the mysterious galaxy across a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum. When evaluating the data, the research team found that the galaxy also has two bulges in the outer areas of the jets in addition to the bright blazar in the center.
These bulges are related to old jets that are no longer fed by the blazar. “The fact that the core no longer feeds the bulges means that they are very old,” explains Hernández-García, the study’s lead author. “They are relics of past activity, while the structures closer to the core are more recent and.” are active jets.”
Why did the black hole change direction?
But why has the orientation of the jets changed so drastically? “We don’t know what happened in this case because it happened a long time ago,” explains Hernández-García. “However, we can be sure that a powerful event took place.” The research group suspects that there may have been a merger with another galaxy or other relatively large object, causing the jet to change direction has. But a strong burst of activity in the active galactic core, after a prolonged period of dormancy, could also have contributed to the 90-degree change in orientation. (tab)