Black hole spotted blasting winds at 130 million mph: “A scale almost too big to imagine”

Artist’s impression of the flaring, windy black hole in NGC 3783 | Courtesy: CBS

A black hole inside a distant spiral galaxy is devouring material from the universe around it and creating winds at speeds never before seen by astronomers.

The European Space Agency said that the black hole inside NGC 3783 has the mass of 30 million suns. The black hole consumes nearby material to power an active galactic nucleus at the center of the galaxy, the ESA said in a news release. The nucleus is “an extremely bright and active region” that sends out powerful jets and winds, the agency said.

One powerful wind was measured at 60,000 kilometers per second, or 130 million piles per hour, about 20% of the speed of light.

“We’ve not watched a black hole create winds this speedily before,” said Liyi Gu at Space Research Organisation Netherlands (SRON), in a statement. Gu led the international research team. “For the first time, we’ve seen how a rapid burst of X-ray light from a black hole immediately triggers ultra-fast winds, with these winds forming in just a single day.”

Researcher Matteo Guainazzi said the winds around the black hole were created as the nucleus’ tangled magnetic field suddenly untwisted, creating something similar to the coronal mass ejections that erupt from the sun “but on a scale almost too big to imagine.”

The similarity between black holes and the sun makes “these mysterious objects seem a little less alien,” the ESA said. Project scientist Erik Kuulkers said the discovery “suggests that solar and high-energy physics may work in surprisingly familiar ways throughout the universe.”

Winds from active galactic nuclei play a role in how the galaxies they are situated within develop, said ESA research fellow Camille Diez. Learning more about the nuclei and how they behave will lead to a better understanding of space, Diez said.

“Because they’re so influential, knowing more about the magnetism of AGNs, and how they whip up winds such as these, is key to understanding the history of galaxies throughout the Universe,” Diez said.