Supermassive black holes sit in ‘eye of their own storms,’ studies find

An artist’s rendition of the immediate vicinity around the supermassive black hole known as M87*. However, the roiling, superhot gases around these black holes extend much further than seen in this visualization. Two new studies give us new insight into the regions around these black holes and how they influence their surrounding galaxies.
Illustration Credit: S. Dagnello NRAO/AUI/NSF

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: A powerful, rotating magnetic wind has been identified encircling a supermassive black hole, acting as a feeding mechanism that enables the black hole’s growth rather than pushing material away.
• Methodology: Researchers utilized the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to detect and analyze specific light wavelengths from hydrogen cyanide (HCN) molecules, using the Doppler effect to trace the motion and structure of gas hidden behind thick dust layers.
• Key Data: The study focused on the galaxy ESO320-G030, located approximately 120 million light-years from Earth, revealing a wind structure that contradicts previous models of purely repulsive outflows.
• Significance: This discovery solves a persistent mystery in astrophysics regarding how supermassive black holes accrete mass efficiently, demonstrating that magnetic fields can create a "storm" that funnels matter inward rather than expelling it.
• Future Application: Astronomers intend to survey other active galaxies to determine if this magnetic wind phase is a universal stage in the lifecycle of all supermassive black holes.
• Branch of Science: Astrophysics and Cosmology
• Additional Detail: The observed process parallels the mechanics of star formation ("baby stars"), suggesting that similar physical laws govern growth across vastly different cosmic scales, from small suns to galactic monsters.

Gigantic black holes lurk at the center of virtually every galaxy, including ours, but we’ve lacked a precise picture of what impact they have on their surroundings. 

A University of Chicago-led group of scientists has used data from a recently launched satellite to reveal our clearest look yet into the boiling, seething gas surrounding two supermassive black holes, each located in the center of massive galaxy clusters.

“For the first time, we can directly measure the kinetic energy of the gas stirred by the black hole,” said Annie Heinrich, UChicago graduate student and among the lead authors on one of two papers on the findings, released in Nature. “It’s as though each supermassive black hole sits in the ‘eye of its own storm.’”

The readings came from the satellite XRISM, which was launched in 2023 by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency in partnership with NASA and the European Space Agency. It has a unique ability to track the motions and read the chemical makeup of extremely hot, X-ray emitting gas in galaxy clusters.

“XRISM allows us to unambiguously distinguish gas motions powered by the black hole from those driven by other cosmic processes, which has previously been impossible to do,” said Congyao Zhang, a former UChicago postdoctoral researcher, currently at Masaryk University, who co-led the Nature study.

The XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”) surveys X-rays coming from distant objects from its perch in space. Image courtesy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

The XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”) surveys X-rays coming from distant objects from its perch in space.
Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Messy eaters

Supermassive black holes are fascinating to scientists on many levels, but one important aspect is that they are often “messy eaters.” As stars and gas are pulled towards the black hole’s event horizon, streams of energetic particles are launched near the speed of light. These streams can stir the gas and inject tons of energy into the area surrounding the black hole. This influence extends far beyond the vicinity of the black hole—reaching hundreds of thousands of light-years away.

Scientists have long suspected that these black holes play a big role in shaping galaxies, both within and outside of galaxy clusters, by regulating the rate of star formation. How this process works in detail is still murky, but is key to understanding the evolution of galaxies.

Some evidence of supermassive black holes influencing the gas around them has previously been seen in X-ray images. However, these are only static pictures of a dynamic process. The new XRISM satellite allows astronomers to better understand the black hole’s influence by precisely measuring the energy of X-rays coming from the hot gas.

Each element in the gas emits light of particular energies, like atomic fingerprints, which XRISM detects. The shape of these fingerprints tells scientists how fast the gas is moving. 

This adds an entirely new dimension to the picture. 

“Before XRISM, it was like we could see a picture of the storm,” said Heinrich. “Now we can measure the speed of the cyclone.”

An X-ray image of hot gas in the Perseus cluster (purple). The transparent square panels highlight regions where scientists measured how fast this gas is moving. The color in these mosaic panels corresponds to the speeds, with yellow the fastest and blue the slowest; their values are shown by the scale bar in kilometers per second. The gas velocity gradually peaks in the center of the cluster due to the influence of the central supermassive black hole.
Image Credit: Courtesy JAXA

Turbulent motion

One of the studies looked at the Virgo Cluster, the closest galaxy cluster to Earth and host of the famous supermassive black hole M87*. The proximity of the cluster gives XRISM the ability to ‘zoom in’ on a relatively small region around the black hole. The data revealed the strongest turbulence yet measured in a galaxy cluster—more rapid even than that observed when galaxy clusters merge, which is one of the most violent  cosmic events since the Big Bang.

“The velocities are high closest to the black hole, and drop off very quickly further away,” said Hannah McCall, graduate student at UChicago and primary author on the paper analyzing the Virgo Cluster, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. “The fastest motions are likely due to a combination of eddies of turbulence and a shockwave of outflowing gas, both a product of the black hole.”

The scientists also looked at the Perseus Cluster, the cluster of galaxies that shines most brightly in the X-ray spectrum from Earth. Its luminosity allowed scientists to map the gas motions both immediately around the cluster center and a little further away. They could clearly see a distinct boost in velocities powered by the black hole, on top of the large-scale gas motions that are driven by a different event—Perseus currently merging with a chain of galaxies.

Similar to visible light, X-rays can be spread into their “colors” (energies), creating an X-ray rainbow called a spectrum. XRISM can measure the energies of X-rays with exceptional accuracy, producing detailed spectra like the one shown above. Each spike is the fingerprint of an element — such as iron, argon or silicon — and the shape and position of these fingerprints reveal how fast the hot gas is moving. This spectrum comes from the hot gas near the M87* black hole in the Virgo Cluster (inset), where very fast gas motions were detected. The background image shows individual galaxies which together make up the Virgo Cluster.
Image Credit: Courtesy JAXA

This provides clues into an ongoing scientific question about how supermassive black holes affect the number of stars that form around them. 

For years, astronomers have noticed fewer stars than they would expect in the centers of these large galaxy clusters. One potential explanation is the heat from the gas around black holes. According to the new data, if the energy of the gas motions is fully converted into heat, the scientists said, it would be just enough to counteract the rapid gas cooling that fuels star formation. 

“It remains an open question whether this is the only heating process at work, but the results make it clear that turbulence is a necessary component of the energy exchange between supermassive black holes and their environments,” said McCall.

As XRISM continues to take data, scientists hope to shed more light on the relationship between black holes and their galaxies, including how the interaction varies with time, how violently the black hole injects energy into its surroundings and how this energy is converted to heat.

“Based on what we’ve already learned, I am positive we are getting closer to solving some of these puzzles,” said Irina Zhuravleva, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UChicago and a co-author of both studies.

Funding: The bulk of the funding was provided by NASA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Czech Science Foundation.

Published in journal: 

1. Nature
2. The Astrophysical Journal

Title: 

1. Disentangling multiple gas kinematic drivers in the Perseus galaxy cluster
2. A XRISM/Resolve view of the dynamics in the hot gaseous atmosphere of M87

Authors: 

The XRISM Collaboration
Marc Audard, Hisamitsu Awaki, Ralf Ballhausen, Aya Bamba, Ehud Behar, Rozenn Boissay-Malaquin, Laura Brenneman, Gregory V. Brown, Lia Corrales, Elisa Costantini, Renata Cumbee, María Díaz Trigo, Chris Done, Tadayasu Dotani, Ken Ebisawa, Megan E. Eckart, Dominique Eckert, Satoshi Eguchi, Teruaki Enoto, Yuichiro Ezoe, Adam Foster, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Yutaka Fujita, Yasushi Fukazawa, Kotaro Fukushima, Akihiro Furuzawa, Luigi Gallo, Javier A. García, Liyi Gu, Matteo Guainazzi, Kouichi Hagino, Kenji Hamaguchi, Isamu Hatsukade, Katsuhiro Hayashi, Takayuki Hayashi, Natalie Hell, Edmund Hodges-Kluck, Ann Hornschemeier, Yuto Ichinohe, Daiki Ishi, Manabu Ishida, Kumi Ishikawa, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Jelle Kaastra, Timothy Kallman, Erin Kara, Satoru Katsuda, Yoshiaki Kanemaru, Richard Kelley, Caroline Kilbourne, Shunji Kitamoto, Shogo Kobayashi, Takayoshi Kohmura, Aya Kubota, Maurice Leutenegger, Michael Loewenstein, Yoshitomo Maeda, Maxim Markevitch, Hironori Matsumoto, Kyoko Matsushita, Dan McCammon, Brian McNamara, François Mernier, Eric D. Miller, Jon M. Miller, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Misaki Mizumoto, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Koji Mori, Koji Mukai, Hiroshi Murakami, Richard Mushotzky, Hiroshi Nakajima, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Jan-Uwe Ness, Kumiko Nobukawa, Masayoshi Nobukawa, Hirofumi Noda, Hirokazu Odaka, Shoji Ogawa, Anna Ogorzalek, Takashi Okajima, Naomi Ota, Stephane Paltani, Robert Petre, Paul Plucinsky, Frederick S. Porter, Katja Pottschmidt, Kosuke Sato, Toshiki Sato, Makoto Sawada, Hiromi Seta, Megumi Shidatsu, Aurora Simionescu, Randall Smith, Hiromasa Suzuki, Andrew Szymkowiak, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Mai Takeo, Toru Tamagawa, Keisuke Tamura, Takaaki Tanaka, Atsushi Tanimoto, Makoto Tashiro, Yukikatsu Terada, Yuichi Terashima, Yohko Tsuboi, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Takeshi G. Tsuru, Ayşegül Tümer, Hiroyuki Uchida, Nagomi Uchida, Yuusuke Uchida, Hideki Uchiyama, Yoshihiro Ueda, Shinichiro Uno, Jacco Vink, Shin Watanabe, Brian J. Williams, Satoshi Yamada, Shinya Yamada, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Noriko Yamasaki, Makoto Yamauchi, Shigeo Yamauchi, Tahir Yaqoob, Tomokage Yoneyama, Tessei Yoshida, Mihoko Yukita, Ian Drury, Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo, Julian Meunier, Kostas Migkas, Lior Shefler, Phillip C. Stancil, Nhut Truong, Shutaro Ueda, Benjamin Vigneron, John ZuHone, Congyao Zhang, Annie Heinrich, Irina Zhuravleva, and Elena Bellomi

Source/Credit: University of Chicago | Louise Lerner

Reference Number: asph020306_01

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