Galactic Bubbles: How Black Holes Paint the Cosmos ⚡ экспресс
What's new: Simulations show that supersonic jets from the center of the Circinus galaxy can create giant bubbles similar to the mysterious Fermi bubbles in the Milky Way. Result: Over 0.95 million years, the jets blow shock waves into the intergalactic gas, and the bubble shapes in the simulation almost perfectly match real observations in radio and X-ray. Why it matters: Previously, such bubbles were thought to result from stellar winds, but new data (like a bright central hot spot and bubble orientation) support the jet-driven model. It's as if invisible streams from the black hole blew bubbles in the galactic atmosphere.
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.