hummer
08-23-2008, 12:54 PM
London, Aug 21: Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have solved a 100 million-year-old puzzle of how giant structures in deep space are prevented from disintegrating.
According to the study, published in the August issue of scientific journal Nature, the spectacular pictures show vast, thread-like "filaments" of gas, which emerge from the centre of a galaxy known as NGC 1275, situated some 235 million light years away from Earth.
They should have heated up, dispersed, and evaporated over a very short period of time, or collapsed under their own gravity to form stars. Even more puzzling is the fact that they havent been ripped apart by the strong tidal pull of gravity in the clusters core.
The study led by Andy Fabian from the University of Cambridge, UK, suggests that the magnetic fields hold the charged gas in place and resist forces that would distort the filaments. This skeletal structure has been able to contain and suspend these peculiarly long threads for over 100 million years.
"We can see that the magnetic fields are crucial for these complex filaments - both for their survival and for their integrity," said Fabian.
NGC 1275 is one of the closest giant elliptical galaxies and lies at the centre of the Perseus Cluster of galaxies. It is an active galaxy, hosting a supermassive black hole at its core, which blows bubbles of radio-wave emitting material into the surrounding cluster gas, the Science Daily online said in a report today.
According to the report, these filaments are the only visible-light manifestation of the intricate relationship between the central black hole and the surrounding cluster gas. They provide important clues about how giant black holes affect their surrounding environment.
According to the study, published in the August issue of scientific journal Nature, the spectacular pictures show vast, thread-like "filaments" of gas, which emerge from the centre of a galaxy known as NGC 1275, situated some 235 million light years away from Earth.
They should have heated up, dispersed, and evaporated over a very short period of time, or collapsed under their own gravity to form stars. Even more puzzling is the fact that they havent been ripped apart by the strong tidal pull of gravity in the clusters core.
The study led by Andy Fabian from the University of Cambridge, UK, suggests that the magnetic fields hold the charged gas in place and resist forces that would distort the filaments. This skeletal structure has been able to contain and suspend these peculiarly long threads for over 100 million years.
"We can see that the magnetic fields are crucial for these complex filaments - both for their survival and for their integrity," said Fabian.
NGC 1275 is one of the closest giant elliptical galaxies and lies at the centre of the Perseus Cluster of galaxies. It is an active galaxy, hosting a supermassive black hole at its core, which blows bubbles of radio-wave emitting material into the surrounding cluster gas, the Science Daily online said in a report today.
According to the report, these filaments are the only visible-light manifestation of the intricate relationship between the central black hole and the surrounding cluster gas. They provide important clues about how giant black holes affect their surrounding environment.