Jun 4 2012

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 12-182 GIANT BLACK HOLE KICKED OUT OF HOME GALAXY

WASHINGTON -- Astronomers have found strong evidence that a massive black hole is being ejected from its host galaxy at a speed of several million miles per hour. New observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest that the black hole collided and merged with another black hole and received a powerful recoil kick from gravitational wave radiation. "It's hard to believe that a supermassive black hole weighing millions of times the mass of the sun could be moved at all, let alone kicked out of a galaxy at enormous speed," said Francesca Civano of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who led the new study. "But these new data support the idea that gravitational waves -- ripples in the fabric of space first predicted by Albert Einstein but never detected directly -- can exert an extremely powerful force." Although the ejection of a supermassive black hole from a galaxy by recoil because more gravitational waves are being emitted in one direction than another is likely to be rare, it nevertheless could mean that there are many giant black holes roaming undetected out in the vast spaces between galaxies. "These black holes would be invisible to us," said co-author Laura Blecha, also of CfA, "because they have consumed all of the gas surrounding them after being thrown out of their home galaxy." Civano and her group have been studying a system known as CID-42, located in the middle of a galaxy about 4 billion light years away. They had previously spotted two distinct, compact sources of optical light in CID-42, using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. More optical data from the ground-based Magellan and Very Large Telescopes in Chile supplied a spectrum (that is, the distribution of optical light with energy) that suggested the two sources in CID-42 are moving apart at a speed of at least 3 million miles per hour. Previous Chandra observations detected a bright X-ray source likely caused by super-heated material around one or more supermassive black holes. However, they could not distinguish whether the X-rays came from one or both of the optical sources because Chandra was not pointed directly at CID-42, giving an X-ray source that was less sharp than usual. "The previous data told us that there was something special going on, but we couldn't tell if there were two black holes or just one," said another co-author Martin Elvis, also of CfA. "We needed new X-ray data to separate the sources." When Chandra's sharp High Resolution Camera was pointed directly at CID-42, the resulting data showed that X-rays were coming only from one of the sources. The team thinks that when two galaxies collided, the supermassive black holes in the center of each galaxy also collided. The two black holes then merged to form a single black hole that recoiled from gravitational waves produced by the collision, which gave the newly merged black hole a sufficiently large kick for it to eventually escape from the galaxy. The other optical source is thought to be the bright star cluster that was left behind. This picture is consistent with recent computer simulations of merging black holes, which show that merged black holes can receive powerful kicks from the emission of gravitational waves. There are two other possible explanations for what is happening in CID-42. One would involve an encounter between three supermassive black holes, resulting in the lightest one being ejected. Another idea is that CID-42 contains two supermassive black holes spiraling toward one another, rather than one moving quickly away. Both of these alternate explanations would require at least one of the supermassive black holes to be very obscured, since only one bright X-ray source is observed. Thus the Chandra data support the idea of a black hole recoiling because of gravitational waves. These results will appear in the June 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra Program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-101 CALIFORNIA STUDENTS TO SPEAK LIVE WITH SPACE STATION ASTRONAUTS

WASHINGTON -- Students at Junction Avenue K-8 School in Livermore, Calif., will speak with Expedition 31 flight engineers Don Pettit, Joseph Acaba and AndrT Kuipersaboard the International Space Station at 12:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 6. Media representatives are invited to attend. Elementary and middle school students will ask Pettit, Acaba and Kuipers questions about life, work and research aboard the orbiting space station. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and include video of the space station residents. Former NASA astronaut Tammy Jernigan will be at the school to speak with students. NASA activities have been incorporated into classes at the school in preparation for the conversation with the space station astronauts. First grade students are learning about local former astronauts who have been part of the space program, including Jernigan, Jeff Wiseoff and JosT Hernandez. Classes focused on health have highlighted advances made through space exploration to improve human life. Art and leadership classes designed a logo for an "Opportunities Out of This World" theme focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Pettit, Kuipers, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Konenenko arrived at the space station on Dec. 23, 2011. Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin joined them on May 17. This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States and abroad to improve STEM teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA's Teaching From Space education program, which promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-102 NASA ASTRONAUT TALKS SHOP WITH GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATORS

WASHINGTON -- NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Capt. Mike Foreman will speak to representatives from federal, state and local governments at the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC) 2012 Communications School near Washington on June 7. Foreman's presentation begins at 4:30 p.m. EDT at the Sheraton National Hotel located at 900 S. Orme St. in Arlington, Va. He will discuss how communication is vital to the success of any government operation, including spaceflights. Foreman was selected as an astronaut by NASA in June 1998. He flew on space shuttle missions STS-123 in March 2008 and STS-129 in November 2009. He has logged more than 637 hours in space, including 32 hours and 19 minutes during five spacewalks. In 2010, Foreman served as the chief of external programs at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He currently is assigned to the Exploration Branch of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, working on the Commercial Crew Program. The NAGC is a national not-for-profit professional network of government employees who disseminate information within and outside government. Its members are involved in all aspects of government communication from writers and graphic artists to broadcasters and information specialists. Media interested in attending Foreman's presentation should contact Glen Thomas of NAGC at 901-619-4536. To schedule an interview with Foreman, contact Brenda Cabaniss of the Astronaut Appearances Office at 281-244-8860 by noon EDT on Wednesday June 6.