Astronomers have discovered that winds emanating from supermassive black holes are approximately 100 times more powerful than previously believed. Observations made using the XRISM satellite revealed turbulence extending roughly 300,000 light-years, significantly beyond the black hole’s host galaxy.
The research, led by Satoshi Yamada, Assistant Professor at Tohoku University's Frontier Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS), focused on the quasar H1821+643, located about 3.4 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. Quasars, powered by actively feeding supermassive black holes, release tremendous energy as material falls inward. Yamada and his team, including researchers from Kanazawa University and Tokyo Metropolitan University, utilized XRISM to study how the black hole at the center of H1821+643 interacts with surrounding hot gas.
Analysis of emission lines from iron ions revealed that the hot gas isn’t static; instead, it’s violently turbulent and spreads across a vast region, extending approximately 300,000 light-years beyond the galaxy hosting the black hole. Crucially, the energy contained within this turbulence is estimated to be 100 times greater than prior assessments, equivalent to the energy released by several billion supernova explosions. “Black holes are largely known for sucking matter in, but they also eject gas in the form of powerful winds,” Yamada stated. “These winds were thought to be contained within the galaxy, but our study revealed that the force is immensely more powerful than previously understood.”
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