Posted on 10/23/2012 3:41:31 PM PDT by JoeProBono
A supersonic jet of unknown material has been discovered blasting out over two million miles from the center of a distant galaxys resident super massive black hole. It apparently looks very similar to whats called the afterburner flow, released from a jet engine.A newly gathered image of this jet shows that it contains both bright and dark regions. In a similar fashion to a phenomenon in an afterburner exhaust, known as shock diamonds.
The new image shows regularly spaced areas that are brighter than the rest of the jet in a pattern that echoes the way the afterburner from a jet engine has brighter diamond-shaped areas in its general glow.
One intriguing possibility is that the pattern we see in this cosmic jet is produced in the same way as the pattern in the exhaust from fighter jet engines, said Dr Leith Godfrey, from the Curtin University node of The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.
According to the researchers, the jets are created when there is material falling into the event horizon of a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. While that is the currently accepted theory, there isnt any more detail to it than that.
Massive jets like this one have been studied for decades, since the beginning of radio astronomy, but we still dont understand exactly how they are produced or what theyre made of, he said.
If the brighter patches are caused by the same process in astronomical jets as they are in earthly jet engines, then the distance between them can give us important information about the power of the jet and the density of the surrounding space.
The jets in question are the largest known objects in the Universe, at least one-hundred times bigger than the Milky Way is.
If we want to understand how galaxies form and grow, we need to understand these jets. They are extremely powerful and are believed to stop stars forming in their parent galaxy, limiting how big the galaxies can grow and effecting how the Universe looks today, he said.
This new image of the jet shows detail weve never seen before and the pattern we revealed provides a clue to how jets like this one work, said Dr Jim Lovell, a co-author from the University of Tasmania.
This particular jet emits a lot of X-rays, which is hard to explain with our current models. Our new find is a step forward in understanding how these giant objects emit so much X-Ray radiation, and indirectly, will help us understand how the jet came to be.
The new image was taken by using the CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array radio telescope located in New South Wales.
The research was just published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
What is escape velocity from an event horizon? You have to get superluminal.
There is yet a third number in the article which says “at least 100 times the size of the Milky Way,” which would put the length of the jet at around 10-12 million c-yr. Somewhat closer to 2 mega c-yr, but still obviosuly not an article for scientists or informed lay people.
Hypersonic in relation to what? We (the earth) is moving at faster than the speed of sound, also. Maybe it is static and WE are what is moving at hypersonic speed???
I just re-read the grammatical composition of my last post (#23) and realize I might be one of this lesser endowed people :>)
In the near vacuum of space, any movement is faster than the speed of sound.
I just re-read the grammatical composition of my last post (#23) and realize I might be one of those lesser endowed people :>)
The article says “from the center” of a Black Hole, clearly nonsense.
a) The ejecta occur very near, but not within, the Schwarzschild radius. b) Even at or slightly inside the boundary the escape velocity is not quite superluminal because of quantum effects (actually “velocity” has no precise meaning in QM.) One manifestation is Hawking Radiation.
And I think superluminal sounds a hole lot better than supersonic, ya hear? ;-))
In South Texas the technical term for this is “Stuff”
TT
Ohhhhhh.....that’s where he went.
Interestingly enough I’m watching “The Universe” on the History channel and the episode is about sound in space. There apparently is sound in space but its not something that can be heard without very specialized instruments.
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