Scientists have delved deeper than ever into the “eye of the storm” that swirls around a supermassive black hole. This unprecedented investigation into the turbulent and violent conditions surrounding these cosmic giants, including the first black hole imaged by humans, was made possible thanks to the Japan Aeronautics and Space Administration (JAXA) and NASA’s Joint X-ray Imaging Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM).
use X Rhythmastronomers have seen samples. supermassive black hole Previous X-ray images showed effects on surrounding gases, but these were missing as static images of an incredibly dynamic process. XRISM displays more dynamic images by measuring the energy of X-rays from hot gases. black hole You’ll have more influence than before.
The one of interest to this study was released at the end of January 2026. naturewas XRISM launched in 2023. XRISM is European Space Agency (ESA)has the ability to track the chemical signature of the extremely hot gas surrounding a supermassive black hole and determine its motion.
“XRISM allows us to clearly distinguish between gas movement caused by black holes and gas movement caused by other cosmic processes, which was not possible before,” said team co-leader Congyao Zhang from Masaryk University.
Supermassive black holes are nasty food
Supermassive black holes, millions or even billions of times more massive than the sun, are thought to exist at the centers of all galaxies. Their immense gravitational influence stirs up gas, dust, and even nearby nearby stars, with profound effects on their host galaxies.
Supermassive black holes are often surrounded by large amounts of gas and dust swirling in a flat cloud called an accretion disk. These disks gradually feed material into the central black hole, with most of this material being carried by a strong magnetic field to the black hole’s poles, where these particles are accelerated to near the speed of light and ejected as twin jets.
The fact that supermassive black holes are like that messy eater That is, they not only stir up gases around them, but also inject enormous amounts of energy into their surroundings. This effect extends far beyond the immediate vicinity of the supermassive black hole, extending hundreds of thousands of light years away. This can have various effects on the galaxy. “Kill” active star formation By forcing out gases that serve as building blocks for new stellar bodies. Therefore, understanding the impact that black holes have on their home galaxies is critical to understanding galaxy evolution.
Such studies are critical to understanding the full scope of this impact.
One of the supermassive black holes investigated by this team will be familiar to astronomy fans. In 2019, the public learned that: M87*itself located in the galaxy Messier 87 (M87), located in the Virgo cluster. The first black hole imaged by humans thanks to Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
In this recent study, XRISM zoomed in on a relatively small region around M87* and discovered the strongest turbulence ever observed within a galaxy cluster. This is even more violent than the conditions that occur when galaxy clusters collide and merge.
“It’s very fast when it’s closest to the black hole, and it slows down rapidly as it moves away,” said Hannah McCall, a member of the research team and a researcher at the University of Chicago. “The fastest motion is probably due to a combination of turbulent eddies and shock waves from the outgoing gas, both of which are products of the black hole.”
The research team also investigated the movement of gas inside. Perseus galaxy clusterthe brightest star cluster in X-rays visible from Earth. The cluster’s brightness allowed researchers to use XRISM data to map the movement of gas both near the cluster’s center and further outward from its center.
This revealed the “kick” to the velocity of this gas by the supermassive black hole, as well as the motion of the gas being driven by the ongoing merger between Perseus and the Milky Way.
This could answer the question of why stars aren’t as densely packed in the centers of galaxy clusters as astronomers expect. The researchers theorize that if the energy in the moving gas tracked by XRISM is converted into heat, it could prevent the gas cloud from cooling enough to collapse and form stars.
“Whether this is the only heating process going on remains an open question, but our results reveal that turbulence is a necessary component of the energy exchange between a supermassive black hole and its environment,” McCall said.
XRISM continues to collect X-ray data that could provide a clearer picture of the relationship between supermassive black holes and their home galaxies, and how this relationship changes with age and evolution.
“Based on what we’ve learned so far, we believe we’re getting closer to solving some of these puzzles,” said team member Irina Zhuravleva of the University of Chicago.