Chandra X-ray Observatory’s clear, sharp photos help astrophysicist study energetic black holes

When a star is born or dies, or when another very energetic phenomenon happens within the universe, it emits X-rays, that are high-energy mild particles that are not seen to the bare eye. These X-rays are the identical sort that doctors use to take photos of damaged bones contained in the physique. However as a substitute of wanting on the shadows produced by the bones stopping X-rays inside an individual, astronomers detect X-rays flying via space to get photographs of occasions akin to black holes and supernovae.

Pictures and spectra—charts displaying the distribution of sunshine throughout totally different wavelengths from an object—are the 2 primary methods astronomers examine the universe. Images tell them what issues appear to be and the place sure phenomena are taking place, whereas spectra tell them how a lot vitality the photons, or mild particles, they’re gathering have. Spectra can clue them in to how the occasion they got here from shaped. When learning advanced objects, they want each imaging and spectra.

Scientists and engineers designed the Chandra X-ray Observatory to detect these X-rays. Since 1999, Chandra’s knowledge has given astronomers extremely detailed photographs of among the universe’s most dramatic occasions.

Stars forming and dying create supernova explosions that ship chemical parts out into space. Chandra watches as gas and stars fall into the deep gravitational pulls of black holes, and it bears witness as fuel that is a thousand occasions hotter than the sun escapes galaxies in explosive winds. It could possibly see when the gravity of giant lots of dark matter lure that scorching fuel in gigantic pockets.

NASA designed Chandra to orbit across the Earth as a result of it will not have the ability to see any of this exercise from Earth’s floor. Earth’s atmosphere absorbs X-rays coming from space, which is nice for all times on Earth as a result of these X-rays can hurt organic organisms. Nevertheless it additionally implies that even when NASA positioned Chandra on the best mountaintop, it nonetheless would not have the ability to detect any X-rays. NASA wanted to ship Chandra into space.

I am an astrophysicist on the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a part of the Middle for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian. I have been engaged on Chandra since earlier than it launched 25 years in the past, and it has been a pleasure to see what the observatory can train astronomers concerning the universe.

Supermassive black holes and their host galaxies

Astronomers have discovered supermassive black holes, which have lots ten to 100 million occasions that of our sun, within the facilities of all galaxies. These supermassive black holes are principally sitting there peacefully, and astronomers can detect them by wanting on the gravitational pull they exert on close by stars.

However typically, stars or clouds fall into these black holes, which prompts them and makes the area near the black hole emit plenty of X-rays. As soon as activated, they’re known as active galactic nuclei, AGN, or quasars.

My colleagues and I wished to higher perceive what occurs to the host galaxy as soon as its black hole turns into an AGN. We picked one galaxy, ESO 428-G014, to have a look at with Chandra.

An AGN can outshine its host galaxy, which implies that extra mild comes from the AGN than all the celebrities and different objects within the host galaxy. The AGN additionally deposits loads of vitality inside the confines of its host galaxy. This impact, which astronomers call feedback, is a vital ingredient for researchers who’re constructing simulations that mannequin how the universe evolves over time. However we nonetheless do not fairly know the way a lot of a task the vitality from an AGN performs within the formation of stars in its host galaxy.

Fortunately, photographs from Chandra can present necessary perception. I take advantage of computational techniques to construct and course of photographs from the observatory that may inform me about these AGNs.

The lively supermassive black hole in ESO 428-G014 produces X-rays that illuminate a big space, extending so far as 15,000 light years away from the black hole. The essential picture that I generated of ESO 428-G014 with Chandra data tells me that the area close to the middle is the brightest, and that there’s a massive, elongated area of X-ray emission.

The identical knowledge, at a barely increased decision, reveals two distinct areas with excessive X-ray emissions. There is a “head,” which encompasses the middle, and a barely curved “tail,” extending down from this central area.

I may course of the info with an adaptive smoothing algorithm that brings the picture into a fair increased decision and creates a clearer image of what the galaxy seems to be like. This reveals clouds of fuel across the brilliant heart.

My crew has been capable of see among the methods the AGN interacts with the galaxy. The images show nuclear winds sweeping the galaxy, dense clouds and interstellar fuel reflecting X-ray mild, and jets taking pictures out radio waves that warmth up clouds within the galaxy.

These photographs are instructing us how this suggestions course of operates intimately and the right way to measure how a lot vitality an AGN deposits. These outcomes will assist researchers produce extra practical simulations of how the universe evolves.

The subsequent 25 years of X-ray astronomy

The 12 months 2024 marks the twenty fifth 12 months since Chandra began making observations of the sky. My colleagues and I proceed to rely upon Chandra to reply questions concerning the origin of the universe that no different telescope can.

By offering astronomers with X-ray knowledge, Chandra’s knowledge dietary supplements info from the Hubble Area Telescope and the James Webb Area Telescope to provide astronomers distinctive solutions to open questions in astrophysics, akin to the place the supermassive black holes discovered on the facilities of all galaxies got here from.

For this explicit query, astronomers used Chandra to watch a faraway galaxy first noticed by the James Webb Area Telescope. This galaxy emitted the sunshine captured by Webb 13.4 billion years in the past, when the universe was younger. Chandra’s X-ray knowledge revealed a brilliant supermassive black hole on this galaxy and steered that supermassive black holes could type by the collapsing clouds in the early universe.

Sharp imaging has been essential for these discoveries. However Chandra is anticipated to last only another 10 years. To maintain the seek for solutions going, astronomers might want to begin designing a “tremendous Chandra” X-ray observatory that would succeed Chandra in future many years, although NASA has not but introduced any agency plans to take action.

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