In a blacksmith's forge, a blast of air fans the glowing coals, and shock waves blow bubbles of hot gas. In galaxy centers, a supermassive black hole drives the same process. Its narrow plasma jets, like bellows, punch through the surrounding space and create bubbles visible in X-rays.
Astrophysicists simulated how the mysterious bubbles in the galaxy Circinus form and tested three scenarios: black hole jets, winds from an active nucleus, and starburst explosions.
Comparing virtual X-ray images with real ones showed a match even in color composition — studied through spectroscopy (splitting light into colors). So black holes act as the chief sculptors of such structures, using only a tiny fraction of their matter — yet their creations stretch for thousands of light-years.
The energy of these bubbles rivals the combined radiation of hundreds of millions of stars, yet it all comes from a region no larger than the Solar System.