Dec 17 2007
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NASA released findings from the collective efforts of its Chandra X-ray Observatory, HST, SST, and ground-based telescopes—the Very Large Array in New Mexico and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) in the United Kingdom. The telescopes had captured imagery showing, for the first time, a powerful jet from a supermassive black hole striking a nearby galaxy. The system, called 3C321, contained two galaxies orbiting each other, each with a supermassive black hole at its center. However, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory had shown a jet emanating from the black hole at the center of the larger galaxy and “punching” the smaller galaxy, which had swung into the larger galaxy’s path. The study’s leader, Daniel A. Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, remarked that, although scientists had seen many black holes produce similar jets, this was the first time scientists had observed such a jet punching into another galaxy. Coinvestigator Martin J. Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom added that, although these jets are common in the universe, scientists struggled to understand some of their basic properties. Hardcastle said that 3C321 had provided the chance to learn about the behavior of jets when they slam into a galaxy and about the subsequent effect of such events on jets.
NASA, “‘Death Star’ Galaxy Black Hole Fires at Neighboring Galaxy,” news release 07-280, 17 December 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07280_Death_Star_Black_Hole.html (accessed 20 October 2010).
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