<p>Bubbles in space! Astronomers have discovered giant bubbles in the Universe powered by a massive black hole, with a mass six billion times that of the Sun.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Astronomers used a brand-new radio telescope to produce one of the best images ever made at the lowest frequencies of a galaxy 2000 times more massive than Milky Way, hosting in its centre one of the most massive black holes discovered so far.<br /><br />Researchers found that this bubble is surprisingly young, just about 40 million years, which is a mere instant on cosmic time scales.<br /><br />Like symbiotic species, a galaxy and its central black hole lead intimately connected lives. Some black holes actively accrete matter.<br /><br />Part of this material do not fall into the black hole but is ejected in a narrow stream of particles, travelling at nearly the speed of light.<br /><br />When the stream slows down, it creates a tenuous bubble that can engulf the entire galaxy. Invisible to optical telescopes, the bubble is very prominent at low radio frequencies.<br /><br />The new International LOFAR Telescope is ideally suited to detect this low frequency emission.<br /><br />Astronomers produced one of the best images ever of such a bubble, using LOFAR to detect frequencies from 20 to 160 MHz.<br /><br />"The result is of great importance", says Francesco de Gasperin, lead author of the study that is being published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.<br /><br />"It shows the enormous potential of LOFAR, and provides compelling evidence of the close ties between black hole, host galaxy, and their surroundings," de Gasperin said.<br /><br />The image was made during the test-phase of LOFAR, and targeted the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, at the centre of a galaxy cluster in the constellation of Virgo.<br /><br />Every few minutes this black hole swallows an amount of matter similar to that of the whole Earth, converting part of it into radiation and a larger part into powerful jets of ultra-fast particles, which are responsible for the observed radio emission.<br /><br />"This is the first time such high-quality images are possible at these low frequencies", says professor Heino Falcke, chairman of the board of the ILT and co-author of the study.</p>
<p>Bubbles in space! Astronomers have discovered giant bubbles in the Universe powered by a massive black hole, with a mass six billion times that of the Sun.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Astronomers used a brand-new radio telescope to produce one of the best images ever made at the lowest frequencies of a galaxy 2000 times more massive than Milky Way, hosting in its centre one of the most massive black holes discovered so far.<br /><br />Researchers found that this bubble is surprisingly young, just about 40 million years, which is a mere instant on cosmic time scales.<br /><br />Like symbiotic species, a galaxy and its central black hole lead intimately connected lives. Some black holes actively accrete matter.<br /><br />Part of this material do not fall into the black hole but is ejected in a narrow stream of particles, travelling at nearly the speed of light.<br /><br />When the stream slows down, it creates a tenuous bubble that can engulf the entire galaxy. Invisible to optical telescopes, the bubble is very prominent at low radio frequencies.<br /><br />The new International LOFAR Telescope is ideally suited to detect this low frequency emission.<br /><br />Astronomers produced one of the best images ever of such a bubble, using LOFAR to detect frequencies from 20 to 160 MHz.<br /><br />"The result is of great importance", says Francesco de Gasperin, lead author of the study that is being published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.<br /><br />"It shows the enormous potential of LOFAR, and provides compelling evidence of the close ties between black hole, host galaxy, and their surroundings," de Gasperin said.<br /><br />The image was made during the test-phase of LOFAR, and targeted the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, at the centre of a galaxy cluster in the constellation of Virgo.<br /><br />Every few minutes this black hole swallows an amount of matter similar to that of the whole Earth, converting part of it into radiation and a larger part into powerful jets of ultra-fast particles, which are responsible for the observed radio emission.<br /><br />"This is the first time such high-quality images are possible at these low frequencies", says professor Heino Falcke, chairman of the board of the ILT and co-author of the study.</p>