NASA’s Chandra Finds Black Holes Stirring Up Galaxies

Black holes are creating havoc in unsuspected places, according to a new study of images of elliptical galaxies made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The discovery of far-reaching explosive activity, due to giant central black holes in these old galaxies, was a surprise to astronomers.

The Chandra data revealed an unsuspected turmoil in elliptical galaxies that belies their calm appearance in optical light. Astronomers believe massive clouds of hot gas in these galaxies have been stirred up by intermittent explosive activity from centrally located super-massive black holes.

“This is another example of how valuable it is to observe the universe at different wavelengths besides just the traditional optical wavelengths,” said NASA’s Chandra Program Scientist Wilt Sanders. “Without these X-ray and radio observations, we wouldn’t know these apparently static galaxies in reality are still evolving due to the interaction with their central black holes.”

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