Black hole 'blowtorch' is causing nearby stars to explode, Hubble telescope reveals
- by Live Science
- Sep 27, 2024
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Related: Biggest black hole jets ever seen are as long as 140 Milky Ways
Supermassive black holes typically sit at the centers of galaxies, sucking in matter from their surroundings before spitting it out at extreme speeds, thus creating a feedback process that shapes how galaxies evolve. As material approaches a black hole's "mouth," friction causes it to heat up and emit light trillions of times more luminous than the brightest stars that can be detected by telescopes. Occasionally, active black holes funnel this infalling matter into gargantuan energy jets that spew into space, sometimes spanning entire galaxies.
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However, how these jets affect their surroundings is largely unknown. By pointing Hubble near the M87 jet, the researchers found that twice as many novas were erupting in star systems near the jet than in the wider galaxy.
Novas typically occur in binary star systems after a white dwarf — the smoldering husk of a dead star — steals hydrogen fuel from its normal star partner, causing the white dwarf to explode like a giant nuclear bomb. It seems the black hole jet is causing the same thing to happen to these nova systems, but the exact mechanism has not been observed.
"There's something that the jet is doing to the star systems that wander into the surrounding neighborhood," Lessing said. "Maybe the jet somehow snowplows hydrogen fuel onto the white dwarfs, causing them to erupt more frequently.
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