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Black Hole Firing Jets

14 October 2022
Electromagnetism

With the help of citizen scientists, astronomers have discovered a black hole firing a jet at another galaxy – see https://phys.org/news/2022-10-black-hole-jets-neighboring-galaxy.html

the claim is made in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters journal. A conical stem of young plasma is seen being ejected from the centre of one galaxy, flaring out like a mushroom cloud. Subsequently, the jet of material reached a neighbouring galaxy. Notice they use the word plasma for the jet. Was it a galactic scale blast of galactic wind that belched outwards? However, before anyone gets excited, the thrust of the paper is to try and bolster a particular mainsteam theory. This is to explain the difference between spiral and elliptical galaxies. The latter od not appear to be making as many new stars as the former and there must be a reason for this. Evidence is said to suggest monster black holes are responsible – monster black holes that fire gigantic jets made up of electrons. These are then thought to eradicate, or reduce, the ability of the affected galaxy to create new stars by depleting the fuel available for star formation, cold dust and gases. The definition of black holes seems to change with the author. Formerly, prior to the big new telescopes, black holes concentrated on devouring material in their vicinity. Now, they are eating material in far away galaxies as well as chomping on the home turf.

See https://www.doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slac116

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