Black Hole Spotted 'Burping' Gas

[mosaix]

Black hole caught 'burping' galactic gas supply - BBC News

Astronomers have spotted two huge waves of gas being "burped" by the black hole at the heart of a nearby galaxy.

The swathes of hot gas, detected in X-ray images from Nasa's Chandra space telescope, appear to be sweeping cooler hydrogen gas ahead of them.

Considering this black hole is 26 million light years away, the science behind satellites such as Chandra is just stunning.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I wonder how dangerous those x-ray/gas blasts are to any life in star systems they pass through.

 

[Vertigo]

Close in to the centre of a galaxy (even a small one like this) the levels of radiation are going to be pretty inimical anyway, so I shouldn't think this would make things much worse. Once the gas clouds are farther out they will presumably be more dispersed and cooler and so less energetic.

 

[RJM Corbet]

Anyway: the scientific mandarins seem to agree that, although unusual, it doesn't seem to contradict the concept of black holes as things from which nothing (except for Hawking radiation) can ever escape or re-emerge?

 

[RJM Corbet]

I wonder how dangerous those x-ray/gas blasts are to any life in star systems they pass through.

... Once the gas clouds are farther out they will presumably be more dispersed and cooler and so less energetic.

Lucky it's burping this hot radioactive gas not, err ... emitting it from the rear end. That would really be damaging to galactic life.
(Sorry for the double post, but one always thinks of these comments afterwards.)