![\"Space](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/space-mission-discover.jpg\" "\\"Cartoon")
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Cartoon demonstrating the structure of the clumpy wind in PDS 456. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41586-025-08968-2<\/p>\n
Researchers have discovered that ultra-fast wind surrounding a supermassive black hole is not smooth and continuous as previously assumed, but instead resembles a rapid-fire stream of gas “bullets.”<\/p>\n
The energy carried by these gas bullets is far greater than anticipated, offering new insights into how galaxies and their central black holes<\/a> evolve together. The findings are published<\/a> in the journal Nature.<\/p>\n The discovery was made by an international research team led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), including Professor Christine Done from Durham University’s Center for Extragalactic Astronomy.<\/p>\n Professor Done is one of only two European scientists supported by the European Space Agency to be part of the Japanese\/U.S. X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), which is observing hot gas plasma wind<\/a> blowing through galaxies.<\/p>\n A galactic puzzle<\/p>\n It is widely believed that every galaxy harbors a supermassive black hole<\/a> at its center\u2014objects with masses millions of times that of the sun.<\/p>\n Over cosmic time, these black holes and their host galaxies are thought to have evolved together in a tightly linked process.<\/p>\n Yet, because of the vast difference in their size and mass, the exact mechanisms behind this interaction remain unclear. Making the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes one of the most profound mysteries in modern astrophysics.<\/p>\n A crucial clue in solving this puzzle lies in the powerful gas flows\u2014known as outflows or winds\u2014that are expelled from the regions around black holes at extremely high speeds.<\/p>\n These winds are believed to influence co-evolution in two major ways: by regulating the growth of black holes through feedback that limits the inflow of matter, and by injecting vast amounts of energy into their host galaxies<\/a>, potentially shutting down star formation.<\/p>\n Using the powerful spectroscopic capabilities of XRISM, the research team observed winds traveling at 20% to 30% of the speed of light from a supermassive black hole.<\/p>\n They discovered for the first time that these winds were made up of at least five distinct gas components, each moving at different velocities.<\/p>\n It suggests that gas is being intermittently ejected like a geyser or channeled through gaps in the surrounding interstellar medium, challenging long-standing theories of galaxy\/black hole co-evolution.<\/p>\n The energy carried by these winds is more than 1,000 times greater than that of galactic-scale winds, dramatically altering our understanding of their role.<\/p>\n Such a breakthrough observation was only possible thanks to XRISM’s exceptional capabilities in resolving the velocity structure of the winds.<\/p>\n More information:<\/strong> \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProvided by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCitation<\/strong>: \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStructured ionized winds shooting out from a quasar at relativistic speeds, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41586-025-08968-2<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDurham University<\/a>
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpace mission discovers ‘bullet-like’ winds shooting from a supermassive black hole (2025, May 15)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 15 May 2025
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-05-space-mission-bullet-supermassive-black.html\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cartoon demonstrating the structure of the clumpy wind in PDS 456. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41586-025-08968-2 Researchers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75,76,74,71,70,72,53,73,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-105039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-materials","9":"tag-nanotech","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-physics-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-science-news","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-technology-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114515010227876951","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}