The outflow of gas is believed to be a feature inherent in all active supermassive black holes that are found in the center of large galaxies. These objects, millions and billions of times the mass of the Sun, are 'fed' by large disks of gas that circulate around them.
However, from time to time, black holes 'eat' too much, resulting in ultra-fast 'wind' erupting from them. These winds can have a profound effect on the regulation of the growth of the galaxy, clearing space from the surrounding gas, throwing it aside and suppressing the formation of stars.
The new observations, published in the journal Nature on March 2, 2017, report that scientists have already managed to make the most detailed observation of another such outflow coming from an active galaxy called IRAS 13224-3809.
Notably, the outflow temperature changed on timescales in less than an hour, hundreds of times faster than ever seen. The rapid fluctuations in the outflow temperature indicated that the outflow was responding to X-rays from the accretion disk, dense zone of gas, and other materials that surround the black hole.
“Although we've seen such outflows before, this is the first time we've seen gas wobble as a result of a change in the luminosity of a black hole,” said Erin Kara, astronomy researcher at the University of Maryland and co-author of the study.
