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4C+29.30: Black Hole Powered Jets Plow Into Galaxy
4C+29.30
4C+29.30
4C+29.30

  • A giant black hole in the center of the galaxy 4C+29.30 is generating two powerful jets of particles.

  • By combining X-rays (blue), optical (gold), and radio (pink) data, astronomers get a full picture of what is happening.

  • The X-rays reveal superheated gas swirling around the black hole, some of which may eventually be consumed by it.

  • The black hole at the center of 4C+29.30 is thought to be about 100 million times more massive than our Sun.

This composite image of a galaxy illustrates how the intense gravity of a supermassive black hole can be tapped to generate immense power. The image contains X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical light obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (gold) and radio waves from the NSF's Very Large Array (pink).

This multi-wavelength view shows 4C+29.30, a galaxy located some 850 million light years from Earth. The radio emission comes from two jets of particles that are speeding at millions of miles per hour away from a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. The estimated mass of the black hole is about 100 million times the mass of our Sun. The ends of the jets show larger areas of radio emission located outside the galaxy.

The X-ray data show a different aspect of this galaxy, tracing the location of hot gas. The bright X-rays in the center of the image mark a pool of million-degree gas around the black hole. Some of this material may eventually be consumed by the black hole, and the magnetized, whirlpool of gas near the black hole could in turn, trigger more output to the radio jet.

Most of the low-energy X-rays from the vicinity of the black hole are absorbed by dust and gas, probably in the shape of a giant doughnut around the black hole. This doughnut, or torus blocks all the optical light produced near the black hole, so astronomers refer to this type of source as a hidden or buried black hole. The optical light seen in the image is from the stars in the galaxy.

The bright spots in X-ray and radio emission on the outer edges of the galaxy, near the ends of the jets, are caused by extremely high energy electrons following curved paths around magnetic field lines. They show where a jet generated by the black hole has plowed into clumps of material in the galaxy (mouse over the image for the location of these bright spots). Much of the energy of the jet goes into heating the gas in these clumps, and some of it goes into dragging cool gas along the direction of the jet. Both the heating and the dragging can limit the fuel supply for the supermassive black hole, leading to temporary starvation and stopping its growth. This feedback process is thought to cause the observed correlation between the mass of the supermassive black hole and the combined mass of the stars in the central region or bulge of a galaxy.

These results were reported in two different papers. The first, which concentrated on the effects of the jets on the galaxy, is available online and was published in the May 10, 2012 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. It is led by Aneta Siemiginowska from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, MA and the co-authors are Lukasz Stawarz, from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Yoshinodai, Japan; Teddy Cheung from the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC; Thomas Aldcroft from CfA; Jill Bechtold from University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ; Douglas Burke from CfA; Daniel Evans from CfA; Joanna Holt from Leiden University in Leiden, The Netherlands; Marek Jamrozy from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; and Giulia Migliori from CfA. The second, which concentrated on the supermassive black hole, is available online and was published in the October 20, 2012 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. It is led by Malgorzata Sobolewska from CfA, and the co-authors are Aneta Siemiginowska, Giulia Migliori, Lukasz Stawarz, Marek Jamrozy, Daniel Evans, and Teddy Cheung.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

 

Fast Facts for 4C+29.30:
Credit  X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/A.Siemiginowska et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA
Release Date  May 15, 2013
Scale  Image is 45 arcsec on a side ((180,000 light years)
Category  Quasars & Active Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 08h 40m 02.40s | Dec 29° 49´ 02.60"
Constellation  Cancer
Observation Date  4 pointings between Feb 18 and Feb 25, 2010
Observation Time  79 hours 33 min (3 days 7 hours 33 min)
Obs. ID  11688, 11689, 12106, 12119
Instrument  ACIS
References Siemiginowska, A. et al. 2012, ApJ 750, 124; arXiv:1203.1334; M.Sobolewska et al. 2012, ApJ, 758, 90; arXiv:1208.4581
Color Code  X-ray (Blue); Optical (Yellow); Radio (Pink)
Radio
Optical
X-ray
Distance Estimate  About 850 million light years (z=0.0647)
distance arrow
Visitor Comments (3)

You must be very proud about your work. It is about knowledge, discoveries, expanding frontiers.
Many thanks.

Posted by Walter on Thursday, 05.23.13 @ 17:25pm


Great.... Science Spread his wings to Universe .... Research Methodology should available to Student so they will encourage for choose this as career .... Thanks to Indian Scientist to give us such wonderful fact.

Posted by Chirag Pandya on Thursday, 05.23.13 @ 04:03am


Astronomy is my great hobby; all the new researches in this sphere are always interesting but Harvard University recent photos are especially important and amazing.
I wish I could do something to support scientists...

Posted by Rose T. Zarandia on Saturday, 05.18.13 @ 08:52am


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