Scientists claim to have solved the mystery how black holes produce so many high-power X-rays.
In a new study, astrophysicists from The Johns Hopkins University, NASA and the Rochester Institute of Technology conducted research that bridges the gap between theory and observation by demonstrating that gas spiralling toward a black hole inevitably results in X-ray emissions.
The study states that as gas spirals toward a black hole through a formation called an accretion disk, it heats up to roughly 10 million degrees Celsius.
The temperature in the main body of the disk is roughly 2,000 times hotter than the Sun and emits low-energy or “soft” X-rays. However, observations also detect “hard” X-rays which produce up to 100 times higher energy levels.
Julian Krolik, professor of physics and astronomy in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and his fellow scientists used a combination of supercomputer simulations and traditional hand-written calculations to uncover their findings.
Supported by 40 years of theoretical progress, the team showed for the first time that high-energy light emission is not only possible, but is an inevitable outcome of gas being drawn into a black hole.
“Black holes are truly exotic, with extraordinarily high temperatures, incredibly rapid motions and gravity exhibiting the full weirdness of general relativity,” Krolik said.
“But our calculations show we can understand a lot about them using only standard physics principles,” Krolik said.
As the quality and quantity of the high-energy light observations improved over the years, evidence mounted showing that photons must be created in a hot, tenuous region called the corona.
This corona, boiling violently above the comparatively cool disk, is similar to the corona surrounding the Sun, which is responsible for much of the ultra-violet and X-ray luminosity seen in the solar spectrum, researchers said.