THE black holes they have always been among the most unusual and fascinating “objects” in the universe. Despite the vast scientific literature, they are mysterious and still very little known. Proof of this is a recent study by NASA which photographed unusual activity within one of the closest to the earth for which it cannot currently explain.
The “jet” of plasma
It all starts from the “capture” of images from the observatory X-ray Chandra from the NASA, which he captured huge jets of plasma coming frominside a black hole as they hit an unknown object causing it to explode. This was one of the few times where astronomers, researchers and scientists were forced to raise their hands and admit that they had no idea what it was or why this object exploded after plasma leaked from the black hole.
The mystery in the new study
The peculiarity that led to the study was not so much the leakage of the plasma, which scientists had already seen a few times, but rather the related activity and the unknown mode of action. These would be large areas of turbulence which manifests itself as bright spots when they are “taken” with X-rays, but the latest study performed by Dr. David Bogensbergeran astrophysicist at the University of Michigan, discovered a knot which did not follow any of the patterns known until now.
“Close to the counterjet axis, we detected a source with an unusual morphology. We labeled it C4. -explains the doctor. Bogensberger –There appears to be two streams of matter moving apart forming two distinct shaped angles of ‘V’.” These “arms” are at least 700 light-years long, or 140 times the distance between Earth and the nearest star. The trail of strong X-ray radiation behind C4 is unusual because all other obstacles in the path of the jet they produce only elliptical spots.
What is known at the moment
This mass is hidden in the Centaurus A galaxy about 12 million light years from Earth and would be formed by an irregular vortex of gas and dust. However, what makes it particularly special and even more mysterious is the “black hole” at its exact center which emits both radiation and matter (we were talking about dust before) shooting it 40,000 light years across the entire galaxy known up to now. Using the most preciseunknown object.
What does NASA hypothesize?
A NASA statement tries to give some explanations: “Although researchers have some ideas about what is happening, the identity of the affected object remains a mystery because it is too distant for details to be seen, even in images from today’s most powerful telescopes.the”.
At the moment NASA hypothesizes that the mysterious object at the center of this cosmic trail could be a big star or even two nearby stars and the particles present in these jets could be emitted by this star hit by strong solar winds. If this were the case, the resulting turbulence would increase the density of the gas in the jet, triggering the X-ray emission visible in Chandra images.
However, the unique structure of C4 raises some doubts about this relatively simple explanation. If there was an object in the jet, astronomers would expect to see a trail of X-rays which runs more or less parallel to the direction of the jet, as if it were the wake of a boat going upstream, and in fact the lower “arm” of the V corresponds to this image.
However, the upper arm has an anomalous behavior that is more difficult to explain, because it forms an angle much broader compared to the jet. This means that, whatever it is, this object may have some truly unusual properties which astronomers have not yet detected anywhere else in the universe.