Black hole spews water vapour

[n2doc]

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News, Hatfield


Astronomers have found the most distant evidence of water in the Universe, a major conference has been told.

The vapour is thought to be present in a jet ejected from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy that is billions of light-years away.

The discovery, by a US-European team, was announced at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science meeting.


The water was emitted from the black hole when the Universe was only about 2.5 billion years old.

This is about one fifth of the Universe's current age, astronomers say. The water's signature, seen at radio wavelengths, is only now being detected because of the huge distance in space between the black hole and Earth.

The vapour is observed as a "maser", in which molecules in the gas amplify and emit beams of microwave radiation.

more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8012501.stm

[kid a]

1. oops..thought this was a cheney thread - my bad.

:hi:

[Peace Patriot]

4. The Great 'God' Cheney pissing on the Cosmos out of a Black Hole? What?

What made you think this was a Cheney thread?

:+ :evilgrin: :+

[tridim]

2. Why? and How?

I thought the jets escaping black holes were always pure energy, not matter. Where is the water coming from and how can it escape the black hole's own gravity? Is it emanating from the singularity or being drawn in by gravity and then spit back out (which I thought was impossible)?

So many questions. :)

[n2doc]

3. I think the material never reaches the black hole itself

It is drawn in from outside and is slingshotted back out along the polar axes. The physics of such a process is beyond me, however.

[Poll_Blind]

5. That must be it cause I thought being a black hole was never having to say Goodbye.

To anything. Ever.

"This backs up our prediction that the water is found in the jet from the supermassive black hole, rather than the rotating disc of gas that surrounds it."

Your explanation hurts my head least so I'm going to go with that. Otherwise the only other thing I could imagine is somehow a white hole being present near enough to the black hole to fake the astronomers out. But that's even a longer, crazier shot.

[Bill McBlueState]

6. this is right

Matter spirals into the black hole through an accretion disk, but some fraction of that matter is ejected along the polar axes just before it falls in. The physics isn't well understood, but leading models show that magnetic fields can probably do the job.

[Qutzupalotl]

7. Hey, smell my boutonnière.

:)