Black hole inside 'œdeath star galaxy' fires on sister galaxy

William Atkins
Tuesday, 18 December 2007 18:49

Science - Space

A concern could be if these planets are just beginning to develop a living type of atmosphere.

In addition, Neil Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, stated: "Black holes are famous for wreaking havoc on their environment. This particular black hole is disrupting its local region by dining on matter that wanders too close—which is the source of the energy for this jet. It also fires a jet out of the galaxy. So it is like a black hole bully, punching the nose of a passing galaxy." [BBC News]

What makes all of this dicey for anything in the path of this jet is that the two galaxies, where are in the process of merging together, are only about 20,000 light-years from one another—a small distance for two galaxies. Images show that the jet has been assaulting the smaller companion galaxy for about one million years, which is about half of its lifetime that is estimated to be no more than two million years.

The binary system called 3C321 is about 1.4 billion light-years from our solar system. The jet is about 1,000 light-years across.

NASA astronomers were able to discover all of this with the use of its space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Spitzer Space Telescope; along with its ground-based Very Large Array (VLA), near Socorro, New Mexico, and the United Kingdom’s Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN).

Scientists state that planets that have already formed may be damaged by the jet, but eventually the jet may help to form new planets and stars.

The studies by Evans and his associates are published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Scientists do not really know much about these jets emanating from black holes. Scientific studies and research into 3C321 will help astronomers learn more about these jets: Why they form? What they are made of? What is their effect on nearby planets? How they evolve over time? and many, many more interesting questions.