A black hole jet from the Centaurus A galaxy is "hitting something along its path," that is baffling astronomers. The Chandra X-ray Telescop team takes you on a tour of the system.
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
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00:00Visit Chandra's Beautiful Universe
00:05Centaurus A
00:07Even matter ejected by black holes can run into things in the dark.
00:15Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found an unusual mark
00:20from a giant black hole's powerful jet striking an unidentified object in its path.
00:26The discovery was made in a galaxy called Centaurus A, or Cene for short,
00:31which is located 12.4 million light-years from Earth.
00:36Astronomers have long studied Cene because it has a supermassive black hole in its center
00:40sending out spectacular jets that stretch out across the entire galaxy.
00:46In this latest study, researchers determined that the jet is, at least in certain spots,
00:51moving at close to the speed of light.
00:54Using the deepest X-ray image ever made of Cene, they also found a patch of V-shaped emission
00:59connected to a bright source of X-rays, something that had not been seen before in this galaxy.
01:06Called C4, this source is located close to the path of the jet from the supermassive black hole
01:11and is highlighted here.
01:14The arms of the V are at least about 700 light-years long.
01:17For context, the nearest star to Earth is about four light-years away.
01:23While the researchers have ideas about what is happening,
01:26the identity of the object being blasted is a mystery
01:29because it is too distant for details to be seen,
01:32even in images from the current most powerful telescopes.
01:36The incognito object being rammed may be a massive star,
01:40either by itself or with a companion star.
01:47To be continued...
01:50To be continued...
01:53To be continued...
01:54You