Q&A: Galaxies, Galaxy Clusters, AGN, and Quasars
Could the supermassive black hole in Perseus be a supermassive
"white" hole? In the Chandra X-ray image, the
Q&A: Galaxies, Galaxy Clusters, AGN, and Quasars
Could the supermassive black hole in Perseus be a supermassive
"white" hole? In the Chandra X-ray image, the point is white,
and in an X-ray photo, the white means that we can't pass the object?
hole shows up as a white dot because of the hot, dense gas spinning around
a disk around the black hole. This hot gas glows in X-rays. We don't see
X-rays from the black hole itself, which would look black in this image,
but is far too small to be detectable in this image.
It is important to
note that the X-rays and jets are not coming from the black hole itself,
but from the surrounding matter, likely an accretion disk, in some way
that we do not yet understand.