Posted on Friday, July 09 2010 @ 0:51 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Astronomers have observed a small black hole blowing a massive bubble of hot gas 1,000 light-years across. The observation shows that not all black holes release energy in the form of radiation, but also as "jets" of fast-moving particles.
The gas is expanding because it is being heated by powerful particle "jets" being released by the black hole.
The observations were made by the Very Large Telescope in Chile and Nasa's Chandra space observatory.
Astronomers have unveiled the findings in the latest edition of Nature journal.
"We have been astonished by how much energy is injected into the gas by the black hole," says lead author Manfred Pakull, from the University of Strasbourg, France.
More info
at BBC News.
