Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2010 March 14
Binary Black Hole in 3C 75
Credit: X-Ray: NASA / CXC / D. Hudson, T. Reiprich et al. (AIfA);
Radio: NRAO / VLA/ NRL
Explanation: What's happening in the middle of this massive galaxy? There, two bright sources at the center of
this composite x-ray (blue)/
radio (pink) image are thought to be co-orbiting supermassive black holes powering the giant radio source
3C 75. Surrounded by multimillion degree x-ray emitting gas, and blasting out
jets of relativistic particles the
supermassive black holes are separated by 25,000 light-years. At the cores of
two merging galaxies in the
Abell400 galaxy cluster they are some 300 million light-years away.
Astronomers conclude that these two supermassive
black holes are bound together by gravity in a binary system
in part because the jets' consistent swept back appearance is most likely due to their common motion as they speed through the
hot cluster gas at 1200 kilometers per
second. Such spectacular cosmic mergers are thought to be common in crowded
galaxy cluster environments in the distant universe. In their final stages the mergers are expected to be intense sources of
gravitational waves.
Posted: 10 Feb 2014 04:52 AM PST
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Fotomontagem usa fotografias dos telescópios Hubble e Chandra para revelar imenso buraco negro no centro de um aglomerado de galáxias
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