Astronomers examined 16 ultra-massive black holes that emit powerful rays into space to determine the direction of their movement now and in the past. Using the X-ray observatory Chandra NASA and the VERY LARGE BASELINE ARRAY (VLBA) of the US National Scientific Fund, scientists have found that some rays have significantly changed the direction.
On two images obtained using Chandra, hot gas is shown in the center of accumulation of galaxies Abell 478 (left) and groups of galaxies NGC 5044 (right). In the center of each image is one of the black holes that throws out rays. These black holes are located in the center of galaxies surrounded by hot gas.
The images can be visible marks and radio records. Ellipses show a couple of voids in hot gas for Abell 478 (left) and two pairs of voids for NGC 5044 (right). These voids were created by rays millions of years ago and show their previous directions. X-shaped marks indicate the location of each super-massive black hole.
Inserts with VLBA images show the current direction of rays visible from the ground. Radio shows are much smaller than x -ray images: for Abell 478 radio, about 3% of the CHANDRA image width, and for NGC 5044 – about 4%.
Comparison of the images of CHANDRA and VLBA shows that the rays for Abell 478 changed the direction by about 35 degrees, and for NGC 5044 – by 70 degrees.
The study of the entire sample of 16 galaxies revealed that about a third of them have rays directed in completely different sides compared to the past. In some cases, the changes are almost 90 degrees, and the temporary scale varies from one million to several tens of millions of years. Given that the age of black holes is about 10 billion years, this is relatively quick changes.
Black holes create rays when the material falls on them through a rotating disk of a substance, part of which is redirected out. The direction of the rays is aligned with the axis of rotation of the black hole, that is, the rays are directed along the line connecting the pole. If the material falls at an angle, not parallel disk, this can change the direction of the axis of rotation of the black hole, and therefore the direction of the rays.
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