PKS 0745-19
Credit
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford/Hlavacek-Larrondo, J. et al;
Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA
The black hole at the center of this galaxy is part of a survey of 18 of the biggest black holes in the universe. This large elliptical galaxy is in the center of the galaxy cluster PKS 0745-19, which is located about 1.3 billion light years from Earth. X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are in yellow.
The researchers found that these black holes may be about ten times
more massive than previously thought, with at least ten of them weighing
between 10 and 40 billion times the mass of the sun.
All of the potential "ultramassive" black holes
found in this study lie in galaxies at the centers of galaxy clusters
containing huge amounts of hot gas. This hot gas produces the diffuse
X-ray emission seen in the image. Outbursts powered by the central black
holes create cavities in the gas -- mouse-over for their location --
preventing it from cooling and forming enormous numbers of stars. To
generate the outbursts, the black holes must swallow large amounts of
mass. Because the largest black holes can swallow the most mass and
power the biggest outbursts, ultramassive black holes had already been
predicted to exist to explain some of the most powerful outbursts seen.
In addition to the X-rays from Chandra, the new study also uses radio
data from the NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) and the
Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and infrared data from the 2
Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS).
These results were published in the July 2012 issue of The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
| Fast Facts for PKS 0745: | |
| Release Date : | December 18, 2012 |
| Scale : | Image is 1.4 arcmin across (about 511,000 light years) |
| Category : | Black Holes, Groups & Clusters of Galaxies |
| Coordinates (J2000) : | RA 07h 47m 31.30s | Dec -19° 17' 40.10" |
| Constellation : | Puppis |
| Observation Date : | 27 Jan 2011 |
| Observation Time : | 47 hours 20 min (1 day 23 hours 20 min) |
| Obs. ID : | 12881 |
| Instrument : | ACIS |
| References : | Hlavacek-Larrondo, J. et al, 2012, MNRAS, 424, 224; arXiv:1204.5759 |
| Color Code : | X-ray (Purple); Optical (Yellow); Radio (Blue) |
