Jan 5 2005
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the Chandra X-ray Observatory had detected the most powerful eruption measured in the universe to date, generating a supermassive black hole that is growing at a remarkable rate. The eruption in the galaxy cluster MS 0735.6+742 1 had been in process for more than 100 million years, generating energy equal to that of hundreds of millions of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). In the past, scientists had usually detected the rapid growth of supermassive black holes by observing very bright radiation from galaxies. However, MS 0735.6+742 1 had no detectable bright, central radiation, and the galaxy cluster's radio jets were faint. Chandra's x-ray observations of the hot cluster gas had revealed the true nature of the black hole. Michael R. Wise of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology remarked that, until Chandra had captured this information, scientists had no idea that the black hole was “gorging itself.” Chandra's discovery demonstrated that, to observe and understand some of the most violent events in the universe, astronomers need x-ray telescopes. (NASA, “Most Powerful Eruption in the Universe Discovered,” news release 05-004, 5 January 2005, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/jan/HQ_05004_chandra.html (accessed 11 May 2009).)
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