NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA recently made another impressive discovery: a superstorm. We are talking about a cosmic superstorm coming from the center of a galaxy, more precisely from a supermassive black hole. Oh, but why is this discovery so exciting? Didn’t we already know that these storms happened? We even predicted their existence, but not how they actually happen, and that’s why it changes everything we know so far.
The superstorm that crosses galaxies
Like all impressive scientific discoveries, this one was not premeditated; no one was expecting to find a superstorm that would change the map of the universe. In fact, it was supposed to be just another observation of galactic winds, which, before this milestone, we thought were smooth and continuous.
Until the Japanese space agency (JAXA), together with Professor Christine Done (Durham University, United Kingdom), led a team to observe this phenomenon in more depth using the XRISM space telescope – an object resulting from a collaboration between Japan, the USA, and ESA.
It was then that they managed to analyze multiple gas flows escaping from a supermassive black hole at speeds ranging from 20% to 30% of the speed of light. Well, they were anything but smooth. In fact, they turned out to be unstable, dense, and very fast.
Not stopping there, scientists realized that these winds not only caused turbulence in the region, but as they crossed the galaxy, they ended up distributing raw material for the formation of new stars in places that were previously inactive.
Therefore, the surprising thing is that these storms not only destroy, but can also create the conditions necessary for new cycles of stellar birth. And that is why they can change the map of the Universe.
Where and how does this superstorm happen?
For this discovery, scientists observed the galaxy known as PDS 456, which is located 2.5 billion light-years from Earth and the key point is that it houses one of the most voracious black holes ever recorded (incidentally, NASA scientists suggest that we live in a black hole, as in this example).
“PDS 456 is a valuable laboratory for studying the very powerful winds produced by supermassive black holes in the local universe. This new observation has allowed us to measure the geometry and speed distribution of the wind in a level of detail that was unthinkable before the advent of Xrism”, explained the team.
This black hole is so absurd that when it generates storms, it loses enough gas to form 60 to 300 stars like the Sun – yes, it seems crazy. And, once again, this discovery is shocking because it refutes previous myths that black holes only consume when, in fact, they are also great redistributors of matter and energy.
Now, moving on to the technical part, let’s understand how this happens: the “gas bullets” as detected by XRISM are formed just 0.1 light-years from the black hole, yet they have the power to cross the galaxy. And, during their journey, these masses compress the gas around them and can generate gravitational chain reactions, causing the formation of new stars.
How did a telescope manage to discover all this?
Another highlight of this mission was the XRISM telescope, because let’s be honest, it was the one that made this discovery possible. Experts explained that it has technologies that allow it to identify the different gas flows and measure their velocities with a precision never seen before. Before you go, let me share another recent revelation that surprised not only scientists but society as a whole: we were able to teleport light for the first time in history, which means we were able to send it to another galaxy.
