Ophiuchus Galaxy Cluster: Record-Breaking Explosion by Black Hole Spotted

Ophiuchus Galaxy Cluster
 Credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/NRL/S. Giacintucci, et al., XMM: ESA/XMM;
Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRT; 

Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF

JPEG (309 kb) - Large JPEG (1.1 MB) - Tiff (51.5 MB)

A Tour of the Biggest Explosion Ever Seen in the Universe - More Animations

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Evidence for the biggest explosion seen in the Universe is contained in these composite images. This discovery, covered in our latest press release, combines data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA's XMM-Newton, the Murchison Widefield Array, and the Giant Metrewave Telescope.

This extremely powerful eruption occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, which is located about 390 million light years from Earth. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity, containing thousands of individual galaxies, dark matter, and hot gas.

The hot gas that pervades clusters like Ophiuchus gives off much of its light as X-rays. The main panel contains X-rays from XMM-Newton (pink) along with radio data from GMRT (blue), and infrared data from 2MASS (white). In the inset, Chandra's X-ray data are pink.

In the center of the Ophiuchus cluster is a large galaxy containing a supermassive black hole. Researchers have traced the source of this gigantic eruption to jets that blasted away from the black hole and carved out a large cavity in the hot gas. (A labeled version includes a dashed line showing the edge of the cavity in the hot gas seen in X-rays from both Chandra and XMM-Newton.) Radio emission from electrons accelerated to almost the speed of light fills this cavity, providing evidence that an eruption of unprecedented size took place.

A cross in the labeled version gives the location of the central galaxy. The publicly-available infrared data, which show the stars and galaxies in the field of view, are not sensitive enough to reveal the galaxy. (Even with higher quality data the galaxy would still not be visible in this composite image because it overlaps with bright X-ray and radio emission surrounding it.)

One interesting aspect of the Ophiuchus observations is that the densest and coolest gas seen in X-rays is located about 6,500 light years to the north of the central galaxy. This corresponds to a distance on the image that is smaller than the size of the cross. If this gas shifted away from the galaxy it would have deprived the black hole of fuel for its growth, turning off the jets. This gas displacement is likely caused by "sloshing" of the gas around the middle of the cluster, like wine sloshing around in a glass. Usually the merger of two galaxy clusters triggers such sloshing, but here it could have been set off by the eruption.

A paper describing these results appears online on February 27th in The Astrophysical Journal, and a preprint is available here. The authors of this paper are Simona Giancintucci (Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC), Maxim Markevitch (Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland), Melanie Johnston-Hollitt (International Centre for Radio Astronomy, Australia), Daniel Wik (University of Utah), Qian Wang (University of Utah), and Tracy Clarke (Naval Research Laboratory). The 2016 paper by Norbert Werner was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge and Burlington, Massachusetts.

A Quick Look at the Biggest Explosion Ever Seen in the Universe

Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

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Fast Facts for Ophiuchus Galaxy Cluster:

Scale: Main image is about 25.2 arcmin (2.8 million light years) across. The inset image is about 6.5 arcmin (720,000 light years) across.

Category: Groups & Clusters of Galaxies, Black Holes
Coordinates (J2000): RA 17h 12m 27.82s | Dec -23° 22´ 11"
Constellation: Ophiuchus
Observation Date: 9 pointings from July 1, 2014 to Aug 9, 2014
Observation Time: 63 hours 9 minutes (2 days 15 hours 9 minutes)
Obs. ID: 16142-16143,16464,16626-16627, 16633-16635,16645
Instrument: ACIS
References: Giacintucci, S., et al., 2020, ApJ in press; arXiv:2002.01291
Color Code: X-ray: Pink; Radio: Blue; Infrared: White
Distance Estimate: About 390 million light years

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G1.9+0.3 - Discovery of Most Recent Supernova in Our Galaxy

Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/NCSU/S.Reynolds et al.);
Radio (NSF/NRAO/VLA/Cambridge/D.Green et al.);
Infrared (2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF/CfA/E.Bressert)

The expanding remains of a supernova explosion in the Milky Way are shown in this composite image, on the left, of the supernova remnant G1.9+0.3. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory image obtained in early 2007 is shown in orange and the radio image from NRAO's Very Large Array (VLA) from 1985 is in blue. The difference in size between the two images gives clear evidence for expansion, allowing the time since the original supernova explosion (about 140 years) to be estimated.

This makes the original explosion the most recent supernova in the Galaxy, as measured in Earth's time-frame (referring to when events are observable at Earth). Equivalently, this is the youngest known supernova remnant in the Galaxy (140 years old), easily beating the previous record of about 330 years for Cassiopeia A. The rapid expansion and young age for G1.9+0.3 was recently confirmed by a new VLA image obtained in early 2008.

Location in Milky Way of Other Historic Supernovas

This artist's impression shows a view looking down on the Milky Way galaxy. The position of the Sun is shown, as are the approximate positions and names (shown in orange) of historical supernovas. These are stellar explosions that are thought to have occurred in the last 2,000 years and may have been seen by early astronomers. The estimated position of the recently discovered G1.9+0.3 is shown in black. Although the distance to this remnant is uncertain, the angle is accurately known. Note that G1.9+0.3 is the only object that is found in the bulge of the galaxy. (Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)

Optical Image of Milky Way Galaxy

This is a beautiful optical image of the Milky Way galaxy, with the center of the Galaxy in the middle and the position of G1.9+0.3 labeled. This is a mosaic of 51 images that were taken and stitched together by Axel Mellinger, an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. (Used with permission)

(Credit: Axel Mellinger, University of Potsdam, Germany)

The original supernova explosion was not seen in optical light about 140 years ago because it occurred close to the center of the Galaxy, and is embedded in a dense field of gas and dust. This made the supernova about a trillion times fainter, in optical light, than if it had been unobscured. However, X-rays and radio waves from the resulting supernova remnant easily penetrate this dust and gas.

On the right is an infrared image from the Two Micron All Sky survey (2MASS), where the colors represent different infrared wavelengths. The center of the galaxy is the bright red spot in the upper right and the location of G1.9+0.3 is shown by the box in the lower left, less than two degrees away (corresponding to about a thousand light years at the distance of the galactic center). More stars are visible in this 2MASS image than in an optical image, where obscuration by dust and gas is more prominent. Also, note the difference in orientation: in the close-up view of G1.9+0.3, north is up and east is to the left, while in the 2MASS image north is to the left and east is down.

See animations here

Supernova remnants are caused when the debris thrown outwards by the explosion crashes into surrounding material, generating a shell of hot gas and high-energy particles that glows brightly in X-rays, radio waves and other wavelengths for thousands of years. In the case of G1.9+0.3 the material is expanding outwards at almost 35 million miles per hour, or about 5% the speed of light, an unprecedented expansion speed for a supernova remnant. Another superlative for G1.9+0.3 is that it has generated the most energetic electrons ever seen in a supernova remnant.

Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory