{"id":12460,"date":"2024-11-13T12:12:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T16:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/nasas-swift-studies-gas-churning-monster-black-holes\/"},"modified":"2024-11-13T12:12:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T16:12:08","slug":"nasas-swift-studies-gas-churning-monster-black-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/nasas-swift-studies-gas-churning-monster-black-holes\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Swift Studies Gas-Churning Monster Black Holes"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA\u2019s Swift Studies Gas-Churning Monster Black Holes<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

4 min read<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Swift Studies Gas-Churning Monster Black Holes<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"Two<\/a><\/figure>
\n
A pair of monster black holes swirl in a cloud of gas in this artist\u2019s concept of AT 2021hdr, a recurring outburst studied by NASA\u2019s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory in California.<\/div>\n
NASA\/Aurore Simonnet (Sonoma State University)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Scientists using observations from NASA\u2019s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have discovered, for the first time, the signal from a pair of monster black holes disrupting a cloud of gas in the center of a galaxy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very weird event, called AT 2021hdr, that keeps recurring every few months,\u201d said Lorena Hern\u00e1ndez-Garc\u00eda, an astrophysicist at the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, the Millennium Nucleus on Transversal Research and Technology to Explore Supermassive Black Holes, and University of Valpara\u00edso in Chile. \u201cWe think that a gas cloud engulfed the black holes. As they orbit each other, the black holes interact with the cloud, perturbing and consuming its gas. This produces an oscillating pattern in the light from the system.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

A paper<\/a> about AT 2021hdr, led by Hern\u00e1ndez-Garc\u00eda, was published Nov. 13 in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.<\/p>\n

The dual black holes<\/a> are in the center of a galaxy called 2MASX J21240027+3409114, located 1 billion light-years away in the northern constellation Cygnus. The pair are about 16 billion miles (26 billion kilometers) apart, close enough that light only takes a day to travel between them. Together they contain 40 million times the Sun\u2019s mass.<\/p>\n

Scientists estimate the black holes complete an orbit every 130 days and will collide and merge in approximately 70,000 years.<\/p>\n

AT 2021hdr was first spotted in March 2021 by the Caltech-led ZTF (Zwicky Transient Facility)<\/a> at the Palomar Observatory in California. It was flagged as a potentially interesting source by ALeRCE (Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events). This multidisciplinary team combines artificial intelligence tools with human expertise to report events in the night sky to the astronomical community using the mountains of data collected by survey programs like ZTF.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough this flare was originally thought to be a supernova, outbursts in 2022 made us think of other explanations,\u201d said co-author Alejandra Mu\u00f1oz-Arancibia, an ALeRCE team member and astrophysicist at the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics and the Center for Mathematical Modeling at the University of Chile. \u201cEach subsequent event has helped us refine our model of what\u2019s going on in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the first flare, ZTF has detected outbursts from AT 2021hdr every 60 to 90 days.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez-Garc\u00eda and her team have been observing the source with Swift<\/a> since November 2022. Swift helped them determine that the binary produces oscillations in ultraviolet and X-ray light on the same time scales as ZTF sees them in the visible range.<\/p>\n

The researchers conducted a Goldilocks-type elimination of different models to explain what they saw in the data.<\/p>\n

Initially, they thought the signal could be the byproduct of normal activity in the galactic center<\/a>. Then they considered whether a tidal disruption event \u2014 the destruction of a star that wandered too close to one of the black holes \u2014 could be the cause.<\/p>\n

Finally, they settled on another possibility, the tidal disruption of a gas cloud, one that was bigger than the binary itself. When the cloud encountered the black holes, gravity ripped it apart, forming filaments around the pair, and friction started to heat it. The gas got particularly dense and hot close to the black holes. As the binary orbits, the complex interplay of forces ejects some of the gas from the system on each rotation. These interactions produce the fluctuating light Swift and ZTF observe.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
\n\t\t\t\t\tsupports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/source><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
Watch as a gas cloud encounters two supermassive black holes in this simulation. The complex interplay of gravitational and frictional forces causes the cloud to condense and heat. Some of the gas is ejected from the system with each orbit of the black holes.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
F. Goicovic et al. 2016<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez-Garc\u00eda and her team plan to continue observations of AT 2021hdr to better understand the system and improve their models. They\u2019re also interested in studying its home galaxy, which is currently merging<\/a> with another one nearby \u2014 an event first reported in their paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Swift approaches its 20th anniversary, it\u2019s incredible to see all the new science it\u2019s still helping the community accomplish,\u201d said S. Bradley Cenko, Swift\u2019s principal investigator at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/a> in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cThere\u2019s still so much it has left to teach us about our ever-changing cosmos.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s missions are part of a growing, worldwide network watching for changes in the sky to solve mysteries of how the universe works.<\/p>\n

Goddard manages the Swift mission in collaboration with Penn State, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and Northrop Grumman Space Systems in Dulles, Virginia. Other partners include the University of Leicester and Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the United Kingdom, Brera Observatory in Italy, and the Italian Space Agency.<\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\t\tDownload high-resolution images and videos.<\/span>
\n\t\t<\/circle><\/path><\/svg>
\n\t<\/a><\/div>\n

By Jeanette Kazmierczak<\/a><\/strong>
NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/a>, Greenbelt, Md.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Media Contact:<\/strong>
Claire Andreoli<\/strong>
301-286-1940<\/strong>
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov<\/a><\/strong>
NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\tFacebook logo<\/title><\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t@NASAUniverse<\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t@NASAUniverse<\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\tInstagram logo<\/title> <\/path> <\/path> <\/path><\/g><\/svg>\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t@NASAUniverse<\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Share<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n