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Astronomers using NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope have observed spectacular large-scale dark and light rays radiating from the bright center of IC 5063, an active galaxy located 156 million light-years away in the southern constellation of the Indus . The researchers think that an inner tube-shaped ring, or torus, of dusty material surrounding IC 5063’s central black hole is casting its shadow into space. According to their scenario, this play of light and shadow can occur when light from the supermassive black hole hits the torus; the light flows through the slits of the torus, creating the brilliant cone-shaped rays; however, denser spots in the torus block some of the light, casting long, dark shadows across the galaxy.
This Hubble image of the nearby active galaxy IC 5063 reveals a mixture of light rays and dark shadows emanating from the fiery core, home to a supermassive black hole. Image credit: Credits: NASA / ESA / Hubble / STScI / WP Maksym, CfA.
“I’m very excited by the shadow of the bull idea because it’s a really cool effect that I don’t think we’ve seen before in the pictures, even though it’s been speculated,” said Dr. Peter Maksym, an astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. .
“Scientifically, it is showing us something that is difficult, usually impossible, to see directly.”
“We know this phenomenon should happen, but in this case, we can see the effects across the galaxy IC 5063.”
“Knowing more about torus geometry will have implications for anyone trying to understand the behavior of supermassive black holes and their environments.”
“As a galaxy evolves, it is shaped by its central black hole.”
The study of the torus of IC 5063 is important because it channels the material towards the black hole.
If the “shadow” interpretation is accurate, the dark rays provide indirect evidence that the disc in IC 5063 could be very thin, which explains why light escapes all around the structure.
Observations of similar black holes by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected X-rays coming out of holes in the torus.
“The holes can be caused by the disc being stressed by internal forces, causing it to deform,” said Dr. Maksym.
“It is possible that the deformation creates gaps large enough for some of the light to pass through, and as the torus rotates, the beams of light could cross the galaxy like beams of beacons in the fog.”
Although astronomers have been studying the galaxy for decades, it took a non-scientist to make the surprising discovery.
Judy Schmidt, an amateur artist and astronomer based in Modesto, California, discovered dark shadows when she reworked the Hubble exposures of IC 5063 in December 2019.
She selected Hubble observations of the galaxy from the archive because she is interested in galaxies that have active nuclei.
The cone-shaped shadows weren’t noticeable in the original exhibits, so Schmidt was surprised to see them in his reworked image.
“I had no idea they were there, and even after processing it, I kept blinking wondering if I was seeing what I thought I was seeing,” said Schmidt.
This discovery would not have been possible without Hubble’s acute vision.
“Older images from ground-based telescopes have perhaps shown clues to this type of structure, but the galaxy itself is such a mess that you would never imagine this is what’s going on without Hubble,” said Dr Maksym.
“Hubble has sharp images, is sensitive to faint things, and has a field of view large enough to see the entire galaxy.”
The results will be published in Letters from astrophysics journals.
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W. Peter Maksym et al. 2020. A gigantic ring of ionized gas emerging from the tumultuous central region of IC 5063. ApJ, in print; arXiv: 2010.14542
This article is based on a press release provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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