The supermassive black hole 'carnivores' from the inside

British astronomers discovered a supermassive black hole digesting the brightest galaxy of Sagittarius, causing it to die from within.

NGC 4696, the brightest galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius, 150 million light-years from Earth, is suffering from a supermassive black hole in the rodent and dispersed center, Science Alert reported on December 6. In the study published in the journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, scientists at the University of Cambridge discovered the origin of the special tendrils surrounding the galaxy NGC 4696.

Through observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the team measured 200-light-years of tassels. The tendrils formed from gas and dust have a density ten times greater than the surrounding gas, and form a swirling shape from the bright core of the galaxy.

Galaxy NGC 4696 in the Hubble Space Telescope image.(Photo: NASA).

In the center of the galaxy NGC 4696 is a supermassive black hole. The researchers believe that this black hole is the cause of the strange shape of gas-tassels . The black hole heats the gas around the inner area of ​​the galaxy NGC 4696, causing hot gas streams to flow out.

The air flows with dust and many other gases along the way, spitting out a fibrous shape when spreading in space. The strands of tassels are also influenced by the magnetic field of NGC 4696. In the process, the supermassive black hole draws gas to the inside and consumes.

Although the phenomenon makes the galaxy stand out, the gas vortex around NGC 4696 hides a dying star system. Because all the material is blown out, the amount of gas and dust left behind to form new stars is very small. This means that every star in the galaxy is old and dies while there are no new stars to replace.

NGC 4696 is an example of an elliptical galaxy formed by collisions between spiral galaxies like the Milky Way. Elliptical galaxies often include old, aging stars, and new star formation rarely occurs.