Black Hole Caught 'Never-Seen-Before' Winds Blasting At 20% the Speed of Light

Scientists from ESA discovered that a supermassive black hole in NGC 3783 released extremely fast winds in response to abrupt X-ray bursts, providing fresh insights into the evolution of galaxies.

In a far-off spiral galaxy, a black hole is consuming matter from the surrounding universe and producing winds at speeds that astronomers have never seen before.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the black hole within NGC 3783 is as massive as thirty million suns. As per a news release from the ESA, the black hole uses nearby material to power an active galactic nucleus at the galaxy's center. The organization said that the nucleus is "an extremely bright and active region" that produces strong winds and jets.

130 million miles per hour, or 60,000 kilometers per second, or about 20% of the speed of light, was the speed of one powerful wind.

As per a statement from Liyi Gu at Space Research Organization Netherlands (SRON), they have never seen a black hole produce winds this quickly. Gu oversaw the multinational research group. They have witnessed for the first time how ultra-speed winds that grow in a single day are instantly triggered by a fast burst of X-ray photons from a black hole.

A researcher, Matteo Guainazzi, said that the winds surrounding the black hole were produced when the tangled magnetic field of the nucleus abruptly untwisted, producing something akin to the sun's coronal mass ejections but on a scale that is nearly impossible to comprehend.

According to the ESA, the resemblance between black holes and the sun makes these enigmatic objects appear somewhat less foreign. Also, the project scientist Erik Kuulkers said that the finding implies that solar and high-energy physics may operate in remarkably similar ways across the cosmos.

Camille Diez, an ESA research fellow, stated that winds from active galactic nuclei influence how the galaxies they are located inside evolve. According to her, a deeper comprehension of space will result from learning more about the nuclei and their behavior.

She added that understanding the magnetism of AGNs and how they generate winds like these is crucial to comprehending the history of galaxies throughout the Universe because of their immense influence.