{"id":12741,"date":"2016-06-08T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12741"},"modified":"2016-06-08T02:00:16","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T06:00:16","slug":"eso-intergalactic-gas-clouds-pulled-towards-supermassive-black-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12741","title":{"rendered":"ESO: Intergalactic gas clouds pulled towards supermassive black hole"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest report from\u00a0ESO<\/a>\u00a0(European Southern Observatory:<\/p>\n

Black Hole Fed by Cold Intergalactic Deluge<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The cosmic weather report, as illustrated in this artist\u2019s concept<\/a>, calls for condensing clouds of cold molecular gas around the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The clouds condense out of the hot, ionised gas that suffuses the space between the galaxies in this cluster. New ALMA data show that these clouds are raining in on the galaxy, plunging toward the supermassive black hole at its centre.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has witnessed a cosmic weather event that has never been seen before \u2014 a cluster of towering intergalactic gas clouds raining in on the supermassive black hole at the centre of a huge galaxy one billion light-years from Earth. The results will appear in the journal Nature on 9 June 2016.<\/p>\n

The new ALMA<\/a> observation is the first direct evidence that cold dense clouds can coalesce out of hot intergalactic gas and plunge into the heart of a galaxy to feed its central supermassive black hole. It also reshapes astronomers\u2019 views on how supermassive black holes feed, in a process known as accretion.<\/p>\n

\"eso1618c[1]\"<\/a>
The background image<\/a> (blue) is from the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The foreground (red) is ALMA data showing the distribution of carbon monoxide gas in and around the galaxy. The pull-out box shows the ALMA data of the “shadow” (black) produced by absorption of the millimetre-wavelength light emitted by electrons whizzing around powerful magnetic fields generated by the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. The shadow indicates that cold clouds of molecular gas are raining in on the black hole. Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO\/AUI\/NSF)\/G. Tremblay et al.\/NASA\/ESA Hubble\/ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Previously, astronomers believed that, in the largest galaxies, supermassive black holes <\/a>fed on a slow and steady diet of hot ionised gas from the galaxy\u2019s halo. The new ALMA observations show that, when the intergalactic weather conditions are right, black holes can also gorge on a clumpy, chaotic downpour of giant clouds of very cold molecular gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough it has been a major theoretical prediction in recent years, this is one of the first unambiguous pieces of observational evidence for a chaotic, cold rain feeding a supermassive black hole,<\/em>\u201d said Grant Tremblay, an astronomer with Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, former ESO Fellow, and lead author on the new paper. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to think we might actually be observing this galaxy-spanning rainstorm feeding a black hole whose mass is about 300 million times that of the Sun.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Tremblay and his team used ALMA to peer into an unusually bright cluster of about 50 galaxies, collectively known as Abell 2597. At its core is a massive elliptical galaxy, descriptively named the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. Suffusing the space between these galaxies is a diffuse atmosphere of hot ionised gas, which was previously observed with NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This very, very hot gas can quickly cool, condense, and precipitate in much the same way that warm, humid air in Earth’s atmosphere can spawn rain clouds and precipitation,<\/em>” Tremblay said. “The newly condensed clouds then rain in on the galaxy, fueling star formation and feeding its supermassive black hole.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

Near the centre of this galaxy the researchers discovered just this scenario: three massive clumps of cold gas are careening toward the supermassive black hole in the galaxy\u2019s core at about a million kilometres per hour. Each cloud contains as much material as a million Suns and is tens of light-years across.<\/p>\n