Giant X-ray 'chimneys' are exhaust vents for Sgr A*

Credit: Gabriele Ponti/MPE/INAF and Mark Morris/UCLA

"Star formation determines the character of a galaxy," Morris said. "And that's something we care about because stars produce the heavy elements out of which planets—and life—are made."

To better understand what becomes of that outflow of energy, Morris and his colleagues pointed the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite, which detects cosmic X-rays, toward the center of the Milky Way. Because X-rays are emitted by extremely hot gas, they are especially useful for mapping energetic environments in space.

In images they collected from 2016 to 2018 and in 2012, the researchers found two plumes of X-rays—the galactic center chimneys—stretching in opposite directions from the central hub of the galaxy. Each plume originates within about 160 light-years of the supermassive black hole and spans over 500 light-years.

The chimneys hook up to two gargantuan structures known as the Fermi bubbles, cavities carved out of the gas that envelops the galaxy. The bubbles, which are filled with high-speed particles, straddle the center of the galaxy and stretch for 25,000 light-years in either direction. Some astronomers suspect that the Fermi bubbles are relics of massive eruptions from the supermassive black hole, while others think the bubbles are blown out by hordes of newly born stars. Either way, the chimneys could be the conduits through which high-speed particles get there.

phys.org, March 20, 2019 - Giant X-ray 'chimneys' are exhaust vents for vast energies produced at Milky Way's center.

Wikipedia: Sgr A*

At the center of the Milky Way sits a supermassive black hole (SMBH) called Sagittarius A* (abbr., Sgr A*). There are thought to be a collection of black holes all gathered around the center.

Occasionally, Sgr A* consumes matter (stars, other black holes, hamburgers, etc). As the matter circles the black hole it speeds up. Before crossing the event horizon, the place where not even light can escape due to gravity of the BH, some of the matter vents of x-rays and gamma rays. This is a discovery of where those X-rays go!

A multiple of images taken over years, the picture shows vast plumes of these bubbles heading in opposite direction. Each is about 160 light years (the distance light travels in one year). This is a huge structure! Some 500 ly in total... I am glad to be mostly not near the center and on plane!

In 2017, the data gathering stopped and project Event Horizon began tying data together to get a "picture" of Sgr A*. They are still working on it!

More information on how galaxies form, how they evolve, and how extreme some of the environments can be (the article says other galaxies are thousands of times stronger output), right from our own back yard!

Understanding how energy makes its way from a galaxy's center to its outer limits could provide insights into why some galaxies are bursting with star formation whereas others are dormant.

"In extreme cases, that fountain of energy can either trigger or shut off star formation in the galaxy," Morris said.

(same source)

I love it! "Fountains of energy"!

And that is not even colliding galaxies! No wonder some stars and black holes get kicked out at high speeds!

YouTube, ESO - Zooming into Sagittarius A*

This is a crazy video. First, you start off in the visible spectrum and get closer, and closer, and closer. Then you switch to another part of the spectrum to "see through" the dust. Then you get closer, and closer. And it looks like amoebas in a way!

As stars zip around they look like something you would look at under a microscope!

Trippy!!

Very cool!

Thanks for sharing

a reply to: watchitburn


No problem!



Link to dozens of black holes around the center of the Milky Way.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Credit: Gabriele Ponti/MPE/INAF and Mark Morris/UCLA

"Star formation determines the character of a galaxy," Morris said. "And that's something we care about because stars produce the heavy elements out of which planets—and life—are made."

To better understand what becomes of that outflow of energy, Morris and his colleagues pointed the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite, which detects cosmic X-rays, toward the center of the Milky Way. Because X-rays are emitted by extremely hot gas, they are especially useful for mapping energetic environments in space.

In images they collected from 2016 to 2018 and in 2012, the researchers found two plumes of X-rays—the galactic center chimneys—stretching in opposite directions from the central hub of the galaxy. Each plume originates within about 160 light-years of the supermassive black hole and spans over 500 light-years.

The chimneys hook up to two gargantuan structures known as the Fermi bubbles, cavities carved out of the gas that envelops the galaxy. The bubbles, which are filled with high-speed particles, straddle the center of the galaxy and stretch for 25,000 light-years in either direction. Some astronomers suspect that the Fermi bubbles are relics of massive eruptions from the supermassive black hole, while others think the bubbles are blown out by hordes of newly born stars. Either way, the chimneys could be the conduits through which high-speed particles get there.

phys.org, March 20, 2019 -

I love things like this, images of celestial workings can really capture the imagination.
Especially the Hubble ones.
Looking at this one I wonder if there's maybe a sentient/sapient consciousness/s in there somewhere?
Existing perhaps on an entirely different level(dimension?), too vast for our limited perception to even begin to comprehend...
I love how we(humans), in our quest for understanding find these things and give them names, "Fermi bubbles", "x-ray chimneys", "supermassive black holes" etc somehow limiting them to vague terms(high speed particles...)when in reality they are so much more than that, potentially representing ancient principalities and egregores, or perhaps even representing the very Gods and Angels with which we have such primal attachments.
We have heard how a moment to a God is a lifetime to man, so looking at these images we could never have anymore than the most limited glimpse of what represents a brief moment in eternity.
Anyway time to take a breath....
Sorry lol, I could go on for hours but this is not my thread(cheers OP!).

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

It makes me kinda sad knowing so many people wont even pay attention to this because "flat earth"...

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

there is something in my mind says that a black hole is whirlpool that sucks everything in and tosses them beneath or upwards in another whirlpool that creates another galaxy and so on.

I love this subject, thanks for sharing

a reply to: BlackIbanez

Poetic waxing is always welcomed! It is kind of hard to not gush when dealing with massive structures measured in light years. In one smallish galaxy in a universe filled with billions... now I am goiing on, and on, and on!

a reply to: 3n19m470

Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma!... [Dirty Rottern Scoundrels]



a reply to: Dr UAE



I didn't know much details about the subject until I started posting about black holes, then a SMBH ripping a star apart (it whipped the star around until it magnetically reconnected with itself and sent out a huge X-ray blast seen from half way across the universe!), and several updates on Event Horizon, so it has been a wonderful learning experience!

I like the black hole/white hole idea. That would keep the quantum checkbook balanced at least.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF


I like the black hole/white hole idea. That would keep the quantum checkbook balanced at least.

I'm not familiar with "white holes", any chance of a quick rundown for those of us in the back of the class? Cheers TEOT.

a reply to: BlackIbanez

Ok. (Ya’ll can, and should, correct me when I misspeak)

BH ingest matter from the universe we see. There is some controversy as to what happens next:

A - Does the matter just exit the Universe to never be seen again? If so, the whole, “matter is neither created or destroyed” law is violated.

Or,

B - Is the “drain” that is the BH connected to a mirror object, a white hole, where matter and/or information emerges.

Cosmology worries that if matter leaves Universe then their theories are not correct.

(Everybody, close?)

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: BlackIbanez

Ok. (Ya’ll can, and should, correct me when I misspeak)

BH ingest matter from the universe we see. There is some controversy as to what happens next:

A - Does the matter just exit the Universe to never be seen again? If so, the whole, “matter is neither created or destroyed” law is violated.

Or,

B - Is the “drain” that is the BH connected to a mirror object, a white hole, where matter and/or information emerges.

Cosmology worries that if matter leaves Universe then their theories are not correct.

(Everybody, close?)

BHs are part of the universe, so nothing "exits" the universe when falling into a black hole. What happens is the object's mass is added to the mass of the black hole.

a reply to: wildespace

Instead, the collapsing matter on the other side of the event horizon reaches an enormous but finite density and rebounds, forming a regular Einstein–Rosen bridge [i.e., a wormhole]. The other side of the bridge becomes a new, growing baby universe. For observers in the baby universe, the parent universe appears as the only white hole.

Wikipedia - While Hole (theory)

Spin and momentum are quantum information. As such, it, much like matter, would have to be conserved (that is what I meant but did not quiet explain). A white hole "solves" that conundrum by stating that if a black were sufficiently large, the mass prevents a singularity from forming but instead "bounces" back (Wikipedia).

I had forgotten about the wormhole connecting the two. That solves both matter and information conservation: it falls in one side, and expands out the other. And some speculate that there is no dark matter but that we live in a white hole universe!