Credit X-ray (NASA/CXC/UMD/Hodges-Kluck et al);
Radio (NSF/NRAO/VLA/UMD/Hodges-Kluck et al);
Optical (SDSS)
This image shows the effects of a giant black hole that has been flipped around twice, causing its spin axis to point in a different direction from before. The large optical image, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, is centered on a radio galaxy named 4C +00.58. The smaller image to the right shows a close-up view of this galaxy in X-rays (in gold) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and radio waves (in blue) from the Very Large Array.
At the center of 4C +00.58 is a supermassive black hole that is actively pulling in large quantities of gas. Gas swirling toward the black hole forms a disk around the black hole, generating strong electromagnetic forces that propel some of the gas away from the disk at high speed, producing radio jets. A radio image of this galaxy shows a bright pair of jets pointing from left to right and a fainter, more distant line of radio emission running approximately from the top to the bottom of the image. A labeled image shows these two sets of radio emission. This galaxy belongs to a class of "X-shaped" galaxies because of the outline of the radio emission.
The X-ray image of hot gas in and around 4C +00.58 reveals four different cavities -- regions of lower than average X-ray emission -- around the black hole. These cavities come in pairs: one in the top-right and bottom-left (labeled cavities #1 and #2 respectively), and another in the top-left and bottom-right (labeled cavities #3 and #4 respectively). Special processing was applied to this image to make the cavities more obvious.
According to the scenario presented by a new study, the spin axis of the black hole ran along a diagonal line from top-right to bottom-left. The galaxy then collided with a smaller galaxy. Possible evidence for this collision is seen in the optical image, in the form of a stellar shell. After this collision, a jet powered by the black hole ignited, blowing away gas to form cavities #1 and #2 in the hot gas. Since the gas falling onto the black hole was not aligned with the spin of the black hole, the spin axis of the black hole rapidly changed direction, and the jets then pointed in a roughly top-left to bottom-right direction, creating cavities #3 and #4 and radio emission in this direction.
Then, either a merging of the two central black holes from the colliding galaxies, or more gas falling onto the black hole caused the spin axis to jerk around to its present direction in roughly a left to right direction.
Fast Facts for 4C+00.58:
Credit X-ray (NASA/CXC/UMD/Hodges-Kluck et al): Radio (NSF/NRAO/VLA/UMD/Hodges-Kluck et al); Optical (SDSS)
Scale: Wide field image is 15 arcmin across (3.4 million light years), inset image is 1.6 arcmin across (363,000 light years)
Category: Cosmology/Deep Fields/X-ray Background, Black Holes, Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000) RA 16h 06m 12.70s | Dec +00° 00' 27.10"
Constellation: Serpens
Observation Date: Dec 22, 2007 & Apr 29, 2009
Observation Time: 30 hours
Obs. ID: 9274, 10304
Color Code: X-ray (Red-Gold), Radio (Blue)
Instrument: ACIS
References: E.Hodges-Kluck et al, 2010 ApJL, 717:L37-L41
Distance Estimate: About 780 million light years (z=0.059)
More information, including images and other multimedia, can be found at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu and http://chandra.nasa.gov
Media contacts:
Janet Anderson
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala.
256-544-6162
janet.l.anderson@nasa.gov
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
