Astronomers, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope, have observed supermassive black holes that emit powerful beams of particles into space, then change direction and strike new celestial targets. This phenomenon, similar to the “Death Star” in Star Wars, could help understand the impact of these events.
The research team has studied 16 active black holes with the Chandra observatory and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a system of ten robotic radio telescopes. The results show that the particle beams can change direction by almost 90 degrees. Francesco Ubertosi of the University of Bologna, leader of the team, explained that about a third of the beams now point in completely different directions (their observation proves that Einstein was right).
Tracking these changes, the researchers used X-ray data from Chandra to examine two “bubbles” in the interstellar gas, which indicate the directions of the beams millions of years ago. Comparing the data, they found that Black holes reorient themselves on time scales ranging from a million to tens of millions of yearsa short amount of time considering that these cosmic giants have existed for over 10 billion years.
The beams, created by magnetic fields around black holes, prevent hot gas in galaxies from cooling, blocking the formation of stars. This can limit the birth of stars in large areas of galaxies. Team member Ewan O’Sullivan pointed out that although the galaxies are too far away to see direct damage, the beams definitely prevent many stars and planets from forming.
The researchers ruled out the hypothesis that the misaligned beams are caused by moving gas in galactic clusters. However, they still don’t know how black holes manage to change direction. Jan Vrtilek of the CfA suggested that material falling towards the black hole from different angles could shift the axis of rotation, altering the direction of the beams.
In the future, however, we could exploit these cosmic monsters to create energy.
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