Astronomers have captured a supermassive black hole hurtling away from its host galaxy at nearly 2 million miles per hour.
The 200,000 light-year trajectory of a young star behind it shows a galaxy that has suddenly lost its center. black hole.
New observations reveal shock waves that prove this space escape is real.
shock wave signature
James Webb Space Telescope at the tip of a star trail (JWST) recorded an arc that appeared to be compressed and heated.
By tracing that arc, Professor Peter van Dokkum yale university They linked that signal to a flying black hole.
Van Dokkum’s team used the shape and motion of the arc to estimate a top speed of nearly 2.2 million miles per hour.
This type of collision only applies to rare events, such as a close encounter between two or more massive black holes in the core of a galaxy.
From Hubble to Webb
a paper Analysis of archived Hubble images reveals a faint ruler-like straight line across space. This is too harsh a feature to ignore as a camera flaw.
Tracking data showed that the stripes contained young stars and glowing gas, leading the Yale team to infer that black stars were present. hole About 20 million times the mass of the Sun was powering the trail.
The evidence had to be indirect, since the scene took place when the universe was about half as old as 13.8 billion years.
The latest JWST observations promised a clearer test, as infrared light can detect warm gases that were barely shown in older images.
waves like a space ship
a preprint They reported that over a range of only about 3,000 light years, the velocity of the gas changes rapidly at the tip.
In an interview, the researchers linked the sudden increase in gas velocity to bow shock, a compression wave of gas that forms in front of a fast-moving object.
“It’s a bit like the waves created by a ship,” Van Dokkum said.
Because the wavefront was located in front of the black hole, the movement could be seen even though the black hole was not visible.
stars on the trail
New stars formed along the path behind the black hole, showing that their passage pushed out normal stars gas In dense pockets.
As the black hole passed around the galaxy, its impact compressed and heated the gas beyond the galaxy’s stars.
Cooling causes the gas to collapse into clusters. star Age increases stepwise as you move away from the tip.
Over time, the lines of the young star will also blend with the old material, so the wake should gradually fade into the background.
kick and slingshot
Only extreme encounters can generate black holes, and they usually begin when galaxies collide and their central black holes meet.
a paper showed that gravitational wave recoil can push merging objects away by inhomogeneous gravitational wave radiation.
Even a three-body brawl can drain one black hole, as the closest pair steals energy and sends a third black hole outward.
Either route would not only leave one galaxy without its largest anchor, but also potentially send a fast black hole into intergalactic space.
when a galaxy loses its core
Most large galaxies hold a supermassive black hole in their center, so when they escape, they rarely leave a gap.
a review We have compiled evidence that these central black holes track the size of the galaxy and the bulge of its stars.
Without that central mass, gas could settle differently during mergers, and galaxies could build stars and star clusters on a new schedule.
As the runaway black hole continues to move, its gravity can be carried elsewhere and disturb gas clouds far from the galaxy.
Cosmic owl discussion
Elsewhere, the system, known as Cosmic Owl, lies about 11 billion light-years away and hosts multiple bright galactic centers.
Observers report that there is a third black hole in the gas cloud between these centers, but its origin remains debated.
The researchers argued that black holes were likely formed by direct collapse, with gas falling inside without a star forming first.
This disagreement is important because it raises a warning flag. Just because a black hole is out of place doesn’t automatically mean it’s escaped.
Search for more fugitives
The streaks are rare and faint, and JWST cannot quickly scan the entire sky, so extensive surveys are essential.
The Rome Space Telescope mission is designed to map vast areas of the sky in a single sweep, capturing vast numbers of galaxies at once.
The European Space Agency’s Euclid Space Telescope should also help scan large areas of space, although the images are not as detailed as JWST’s.
“The next step is obviously to look for more examples,” Van Dokkum said, and extensive research now makes that search a reality.
limited proof
Peer review is still between dramatic events image And with the findings confirmed, the team described the study as preliminary.
Matching the JWST data with previous Hubble and Keck observations showed the same structure under different types of light.
Examination of the JWST images revealed that this object was extraordinary in almost every way, an impression reinforced with each new layer of data.
More sightings will tell us how often black holes are ejected and whether their star trails continue to form in other galaxies.
What does this change?
black hole can leave its location galaxycarving visible scars in the gas and causing the birth of stars far from the center.
Future research should turn single examples into censuses and sharpen theories about black hole mergers and subsequent kicks.
This research Astrophysics Journal Letter.
Image credits: NASA, ESA, Pieter van Dokkum (Yale University)
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