Does a black hole fire up cold heart of the Phoenix?

Radio astronomers have detected jets of hot gas blasted out by a black hole in the galaxy at the heart of the Phoenix Galaxy Cluster, located 5.9 billion light-years away in the constellation Phoenix.

This is an important result for understanding the coevolution of galaxies, gas, and black holes in galaxy clusters.

Galaxies are not distributed randomly in space. Through mutual gravitational attraction, galaxies gather together to form collections known as clusters.

The space between galaxies is not entirely empty. There is very dilute gas throughout a cluster that can be detected by X-ray observations.

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Credit: NAOJ

Artist’s illustration of the structures seen in the observations.

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Credit: Akahori et al

Radio observations of the center of the Phoenix Galaxy Cluster showing jet structures extending out from the central galaxy.

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Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity and contain a gigantic black hole in their center.

Astronomers usually find these black holes tamp down the formation of new stars by pumping heat and energy out into space.

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Phoenix galaxy cluster is not playing this usual role.

Instead, outbursts from the central black hole are actually helping more stars to form.

Astronomers have confirmed the first example of a supermassive black hole unable to prevent copious numbers of stars forming in the core of galaxy cluster where it resides. This result provides new details about the life cycles of some of the most extreme objects in the universe.

The largest supermassive black holes astronomers have ever found are in the centers of galaxy clusters.