Latest news with #2MASX
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
This Deep-Space Spiral Galaxy Does Something It Shouldn't
Scientists are scratching their heads after taking a closer look at 2MASX J23453268−0449256, a spiral galaxy with a mouthful of a name. Nearly 1 billion light-years from Earth, the galaxy contains something it shouldn't: a supermassive black hole with jets so powerful, the spiral should no longer be stable. J2345-0449—as the galaxy is thankfully also known—was found in 2014, when astronomers in India hunted down a giant radio source known to possess relativistic jets, whose blasts of plasma travel at nearly the speed of light. Even then, the astronomers knew that J2345-0449 was strange: Relativistic jets are some of the universe's most powerful particle accelerators, and they're not typically found in spiral galaxies. Adding to the mystery was the size of J2345-0449's black hole, which the team considered "unusually massive" for a bulgeless disk galaxy. They were right to be surprised. More than a decade later, the same astronomers have completed an in-depth investigation of J2345-0449 using the Hubble Space Telescope, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Wave Array. Published last week in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, their findings highlight the galaxy's bizarre combination of structural components, which appear to contradict each other despite likely having "peacefully co-evolved." J2345-0449's jets extend 6 million light-years away from its central supermassive black hole. Credit: Bagchi and Ray et al/Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope J2345-0449 might be three times the size of the Milky Way, but its central supermassive black hole is even more intimidating: The astronomers say its mass is billions of times larger than our Sun's. (Sagittarius A, the Milky Way's black hole, is merely 4 million times as massive as the Sun.) Though black holes don't produce their own radiation, they can influence their surroundings in ways that do. J2345-0449 exhibits signs of suppressed star formation in its central region; while the mechanisms of star formation suppression aren't well known, the astronomers think feedback from J2345-0449's black hole is pumping the brakes. Accretion disks are known to "reroute" material that would otherwise fall into a black hole. When that happens—or when an accretion disk squeezes infalling material—a plasma jet forms, spewing energy outward, away from the black hole. These blasts are believed to play a role in J2345-0449's suppression of star formation, which in turn could produce powerful radio jets. But jets of this capacity would render any other spiral galaxy unstable. Galaxies of this type—including our own Milky Way—are considered too fragile for the immense turbulence produced by such jets, which could disturb the disk's wispy structure. "This discovery is more than just an oddity—it forces us to rethink how galaxies evolve, and how supermassive black holes grow in them and shape their environments," lead study author Joydeep Bagchi told the Royal Astronomical Society.
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists find a galaxy that defies conventional wisdom
Scientists have spotted a defiant galaxy. Located nearly 1 billion light-years from Earth, the galaxy 2MASX J23453268−0449256 is a spiral, like our home the Milky Way. Yet it does something galactic researchers only thought possible in much more massive elliptical galaxies, which form through mergers of galaxies: It hosts an enormous supermassive black hole that emits powerful jets of energy into space — the type that would wreak havoc and destabilize such a spiral galaxy. "This discovery upends conventional wisdom, as such powerful jets are almost exclusively found in elliptical galaxies, not spirals," Suraj Dhiwar, a researcher at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in India who coauthored the new study, told Mashable. The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills. Spiral galaxies are often considered too delicate to support the kind of extreme black hole activity seen in this galactic system, Joydeep Bagchi, an astrophysicist at Christ University in India who led the research, told Mashable. But this galaxy maintains its well-ordered spiral structure in the face of extreme blasts of energized particles and radiation from a black hole billions of times the mass of the sun, as you can see in the Hubble Space Telescope imagery above and below. "This discovery upends conventional wisdom." Black holes themselves — so gravitationally powerful not even light can escape their grasp — produce no radiation or light. But galactic material can rapidly spin around black holes, forming a vibrant "accretion disk" that radiates light. And sometimes material falling into a black hole can be rerouted into two giant jets, firing in opposite directions out into the universe. The Milky Way (bottom) compared to the larger galaxy 2MASX J23453268-0449256. Credit: Bagchi and Ray et al / Hubble Space Telescope The cosmic quandary of the expansive spiral galaxy 2MASX J23453268−0449256 calls for more telescopic investigation, the researchers emphasize. "It forces us to rethink how galaxies evolve, and how supermassive black holes grow in them and shape their environments," Dhiwar explained. So far, observations gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array reveal that the galaxy doesn't only have an orderly, tranquil spiral appearance. It also maintains a bright nuclear bar-shaped mass of stars near its core (as many spiral galaxies do) and an undisturbed outer stellar ring — home to some vigorous star formation. Imagery from a radio telescope show two colossal jets shooting out from the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy 2MASX J23453268−0449256. Credit: Bagchi and Ray et al / Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope The unusual circumstance of galaxy 2MASX J23453268−0449256 also has relevance to our galaxy. While the central supermassive black hole in the Milky Way, called Sagittarius A*, is much smaller and currently dormant, it could (one far-off day) awake. A mighty gas cloud or small dwarf galaxy could accrete around the black hole, providing the fuel needed for powerful jets of radiation to blast through our galaxy. These rapidly moving particles could pose a danger to planets. "If such jets were to form and be directed toward our solar system, they could potentially strip away planetary atmospheres, increase radiation exposure, and even trigger a mass extinction event on Earth," Bagchi said. Life on Earth has indeed thrived over eons, and eventually bounced back following mass extinctions. But might another, stoked by our massive black hole, be in the cards? Grasping how such active black holes behave in spiral galaxies can help us not just grasp the fate of our galaxy, but others. "Ultimately, this study brings us one step closer to unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos, reminding us that the universe still holds surprises beyond our imagination," Dhiwar said.
