Telescopes on Earth and in space have discovered a mysterious “cosmic heartbeat” from a gas cloud in the Aquilla ray.
According to scientists, the early pulses are linked to material blown out of a black hole in a nearby galaxy – that material sucks from a large star 30 times the size of our Sun.
The researchers said the “gamma ray heartbeat” in Aquilla pulses in time with a black hole 100 light-years away in the SS 433 system.
The black hole sucks matter from the giant star as it rotates around it, forming a swirling action disk that rotates in the black hole, like water in a bathtub, they said.
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However, some of the case does not fall into the hole, but rather flows out in high velocity spirals from the center of the disk in both directions.
The results were published today in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Study co-author Jian Li, a Humboldt Fellow with the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Zeuthen, Germany, said: “This result challenges clear interpretations and is unexpected from previously published theoretical models.
“It offers us the opportunity to discover the particle transport of SS 433 and to investigate the structure of the magnetic field in its vicinity.”
The researchers said that despite the distance between the black hole and the gas cloud, the pulses are at perfect times.
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“The consistent periods indicate that the emission of gas clouds is driven by the micro quasar,” Li said.
Scientists do not yet fully know how the jets overcome the pull of the black hole and are ejected from the disk.
The present study presents a new question: how does the black hole beat the heartbeat of the gas cloud?
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One suggestion is that the gamma-ray emissions of the cloud are caused by the injection of the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, known as fast protons, which are produced at the end of the jets, or at the black hole .
“SS 433 remains observant about all frequencies and theorists alike,” Li said.
“And it is sure to provide a test bed for our ideas on cosmic ray production and propagation at microquasars for years to come.”
