Supermassive Black Hole Clocks Record Winds

Astronomers have detected the fastest black hole winds ever recorded, erupting from the core of the stunning spiral galaxy NGC 3783, located approximately 130 million light-years away.

At that galaxy’s heart lies a supermassive black hole (weighing an estimated 30 million times the mass of the Sun) that is so intensely active it is classified as an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN).

Using the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton and the JAXA-led XRISM space telescopes, researchers tracked a bright X-ray flare from the black hole. As the flare subsided, an incredible stream of ultra-hot plasma appeared, accelerating to a staggering one-fifth the speed of light (nearly 300 000 kilometres per second).

“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,” stated lead researcher Liyi Gu at the Space Research Organisation Netherlands.

The winds are believed to be caused by the AGN’s tangled magnetic field suddenly “untwisting”, similar to solar flares – electromagnetic radiation bursts in the Sun’s atmosphere – but on a colossal scale.

Understanding these magnetic processes and the resulting winds is critical, as these phenomena play a major role in shaping the evolution and star formation rate of their host galaxies throughout the universe.