Astronomers capture sudden black hole blast firing ultra fast winds

This enormous black hole sits in NGC 3783, a striking spiral galaxy recently photographed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers observed a bright X-ray flare burst from the black hole and fade almost immediately. As the flare diminished, high-velocity winds appeared, racing outward at roughly one-fifth the speed of light.

"We've not watched a black hole create winds this speedily before," says lead researcher Liyi Gu at Space Research Organization Netherlands (SRON). "For the first time, we've seen how a rapid burst of X-ray light from a black hole immediately triggers ultra-fast winds, with these winds forming in just a single day."

Inside an Active Galactic Nucleus

To investigate NGC 3783 and its central black hole, Gu and his team used the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton together with the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a JAXA-led mission with ESA and NASA participation.

The black hole, containing the mass of about 30 million Suns, consumes nearby gas and dust. This activity powers a brilliantly luminous and energetic zone at the galaxy's center called an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). AGNs emit light across the electromagnetic spectrum and can drive strong jets and winds into their surroundings.

"AGNs are really fascinating and intense regions, and key targets for both XMM-Newton and XRISM," notes Matteo Guainazzi, ESA XRISM Project Scientist and co-author of the discovery.

"The winds around this black hole seem to have been created as the AGN's tangled magnetic field suddenly 'untwisted' -- similar to the flares that erupt from the Sun, but on a scale almost too big to imagine."

Black Hole Winds That Echo Solar Eruptions

The newly detected winds resemble the Sun's coronal mass ejections, powerful outbursts that launch huge clouds of charged material into space. This comparison suggests that, in some moments, a supermassive black hole can behave in ways similar to our own star, making these distant giants feel slightly more familiar.

A real-world example occurred on November 11, when the Sun produced a coronal mass ejection following an intense flare. The material expelled during that solar event shot out at initial speeds of 1500 km per second.

"Windy AGNs also play a big role in how their host galaxies evolve over time, and how they form new stars," says Camille Diez, a team member and ESA Research Fellow.

"Because they're so influential, knowing more about the magnetism of AGNs, and how they whip up winds such as these, is key to understanding the history of galaxies throughout the Universe."

Two Telescopes Working in Unison

XMM-Newton has spent more than 25 years exploring the hottest and most extreme environments in space, while XRISM has been studying how matter and energy move through the Universe since its launch in September 2023.

Together, these missions uncovered this extraordinary episode and helped scientists understand the flare and the resulting winds. XMM-Newton followed the evolution of the flare with its Optical Monitor and measured the reach of the winds using the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC). XRISM detected the flare and winds with its Resolve instrument, which analyzed their velocity, structure, and the processes that launched them.

"Their discovery stems from successful collaboration, something that's a core part of all ESA missions," explains ESA XMM-Newton Project Scientist Erik Kuulkers.

"By zeroing in on an active supermassive black hole, the two telescopes have found something we've not seen before: rapid, ultra-fast, flare-triggered winds reminiscent of those that form at the Sun. Excitingly, this suggests that solar and high-energy physics may work in surprisingly familiar ways throughout the Universe."