Avi Blizovsky
A cumulative 270-hour observation by the Chandra Space Telescope into the central region of the Perseus galaxy cluster reveals evidence of turmoil that has rocked the cluster for hundreds of millions of years. The cluster, which is one of the most massive objects known in the universe, contains thousands of galaxies immersed in a huge cloud of hot gas at millions of degrees and with the mass of a trillion suns.
Bright giant loops, waves and giant jets are visible in the image. The dark blue areas in the center are probably due to a galaxy that was torn apart and fell into the galaxy NGC 1275 - the large galaxy in the center of the cluster and therefore also known as Perseus A.
The image has been specially processed so that it will be possible to distinguish areas where the pressure is low or high of hot gas. This rendering revealed a large, unfamiliar area of low pressure (seen in purple and highlighted by white outlines). Low pressure regions are seen as jutting eddies extending 300 light-years away from the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 1275.
The pressure of the hot gas also appears low at these transitions due to bubbles of high energy particles that are not visible, and which expel the gas. These transformations are the release of the fury of the explosion near the black hole.
These bursts produce sound waves that heat the gas through the inner regions of the cluster and prevent the gas from cooling and forming stars at a high rate. The process slows the growth of one of the largest known galaxies in the universe. It provides a dramatic example of how a relatively small but massive black hole at the center of a galaxy can control the heating and cooling characteristics of the gas behind the scenes of the galaxy.
For information on the Chandra website
The Sage of the Galaxies
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~335114429~~~181&SiteName=hayadan
