Data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory could dispel a widely-held belief about black hole jets.
"One of the reasons we're excited about the variability is that there are two main models for how x-rays are produced in these jets, and they're completely different," lead author Eileen Meyer, an astronomer at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, explained in a"One model invokes very low-energy electrons and one has very high-energy electrons. And one of those models is completely incompatible with any kind of variability.
The new paper's authors analyzed archival data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and found frequent variability among the 53 jets captured by the observatory. Discovering this frequent variability on short time scales "is revolutionary in the context of these jets because that was not expected at all,” Meyer said.
The same theory that assumes stability in X-ray emissions over millions of years also assumes that particle acceleration occurs within the black hole that's emitting the jet. However, the new study found changes in X-ray emissions along the entire length of the jets and far from the black hole.Ultimately, the team found that between 30 and 100 percent of the jets in the study showed variability over short time scales.
The new findings call into question one of the leading theories for the mechanisms of black holes firing massive jets into space. We know that black holes propel these massive energetic jets of material from their rings or accretion discs, but we don't quite yet understand how or why.
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