When astronomers use radio telescopes to gaze into the night sky, they typically see elliptical-shaped galaxies, with twin jets blasting from either side of their central supermassive black hole.
When astronomers use radio telescopes to gaze into the night sky, they typically see elliptical-shaped galaxies, with twin jets blasting from either side of their central supermassive black hole. But every once in a while — less than 10% of the time — astronomers might spot something special and rare: An X-shaped radio galaxy, with four jets extending far into space.
Although these mysterious X-shaped radio galaxies have confounded astrophysicists for two decades, a new Northwestern University study sheds new insight into how they form — and its surprisingly simple. The study also found that X-shaped radio galaxies might be more common than previously thought.
The study was published today (Aug. 29) in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. It marks the first large-scale galaxy accretion simulation that tracks the galactic gas far from the supermassive black hole all the way toward it.
Read more at Northwestern University
Image: A still image taken from the 3D simulation of the natural development of an X-shaped jet. The gas (bright red) falls into the black hole, which launches a pair of relativistic jets (light blue). The jets propagate vertically and shock the ambient gas (dark red) The older cavities (dark blue) buoyantly rise at an angle to the vertically propagating jets to form the X-shape. (Credit: Aretaios Lalakos/Northwestern University)
