A Most Extreme Cluster Catastrophe

MS 0735 contains the biggest black hole in the universe

MS 0735 is a galaxy cluster, located in the Camelopardalis constellation. The image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys in February 2006 shows dozens of galaxies bound together by gravity.

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers discovered a supermassive black hole in bright central galaxy of MS 0735, which generated the most powerful outburst yet discovered in our universe by growing at a remarkable rate. The red colored parts indicate jets of high energy particles coming from the black hole, pushing the blue hot gas (with a temperature of nearly 50 million degrees) that emits X-rays to the side, creating the two huge cavities in the gas, each roughly 640.000 light-years in diameter (nearly seven times the diameter of the Milky Way). The eruption, which has lasted for more than 100 million years, exceeding the power output of the Sun by nearly ten trillion times, has generated energy equivalent to hundreds of millions of gamma-ray bursts.

The cavities, filled with charged particles gyrating around magnetic field lines extend away from the supermassive black hole in MS 0735 galaxy cluster central galaxy, possibly the biggest black hole inhabiting the visible universe.

The eruption was caused by gravitational energy release, as enormous amounts of matter fell toward a black hole. Most of the matter was swallowed, but some of it was violently ejected before being captured by the black hole. “I was stunned to find that a mass of about 300 million suns was swallowed,” said Brian McNamara of Ohio University in Athens.

Astronomers are not sure where such large amounts of matter came from. One theory is gas from the host galaxy catastrophically cooled and was swallowed by the black hole. The energy released shows the black hole in MS 0735 has grown dramatically during this eruption. Previous studies suggest other large black holes have grown very little in the recent past, and that only smaller black holes are still growing quickly.

Besides generating the cavities, some of the energy from this eruption should keep the hot gas around the black hole from cooling, and some of it may also generate large-scale magnetic fields in the galaxy cluster. Chandra observers have discovered other cavities in MS 0735 galaxy clusters, but this one is easily the largest and the most powerful.

Distance from Earth: ~ 2,6 billion years.

Click below for full resolution picture of MS 0735