X-ray spacecraft finds supermassive black hole stirring up the 'red potato' galaxy: 'There may be a cook in this cosmic kitchen'

Using the Chandra X-ray spacecraft, astronomers have seen a jet from a feeding supermassive black hole churning gas surrounding a galaxy nicknamed the "red potato."

The top 3

  1. Top 3 Most Massive Black Holes: TON 618 holds the record as the most massive observed black hole, estimated at 66 billion solar masses, followed by Holmberg 15A at around 40 billion solar masses, and the supermassive black hole in M87 at approximately 5.4-6.5 billion solar masses.
  2. Most Luminous and Active Quasars: Quasars, powered by supermassive black holes, include TON 618, a hyper-luminous quasar shining over 140 trillion times brighter than the Sun, and J0529-4351, which emits 500 trillion times the Sun's luminosity. 3C 273 is notable as one of the first and brightest quasars discovered, visible even with small telescopes.
  3. How Black Holes Shape Galaxies: Supermassive black holes regulate star formation by emitting powerful jets and X-rays that heat and expel gas, preventing new stars from forming, though on larger scales they can also instigate star formation. The tight correlation between a galaxy's central bulge mass and its black hole's mass suggests a co-evolutionary relationship in their formation.

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