Scientists for 20 years could not understand the nature of X-galaxies. It turned out that everything is very simple.

Mysterious X-shaped radio galaxies have baffled astrophysicists for 20 years. Now, employees

Northwestern University published a new study that explains how they are formed. It turned out to be a surprisingly common process.

Using simulations, astrophysicists realizedvery simple conditions under which a supermassive black hole actively “feeds” and produces jets and an accretion disk (a structure that results from the fall of diffuse material with rotational momentum onto a massive central body). When the scientists ran the simulation, it worked. It was simple conditions that formed the X-shaped radio galaxy.

It turned out that the characteristic X-shapeThe galaxy appeared as a result of the interaction between jets and gas that falls into the black hole. At the beginning of the simulation, the gas deflected the newly formed jets. They switched on and off, swung randomly, and inflated pairs of cavities in different directions, creating a characteristic shape. However, eventually the jets became strong enough to “push” the gas. At this moment they stabilized, stopped swaying and spread along one axis.

In other words, “even in the presence of simplesymmetrical initial conditions produce a rather messy result,” explains Aretaios Lalakos, who led the study. A popular explanation for X-shaped radio galaxies is that two galaxies collide, causing their supermassive black holes to merge. This changes the rotation of the remaining black hole and the direction of the jet. Another opinion is that the shape of the jet changes when it interacts with gas enveloping an isolated supermassive black hole. “We have proven that X-shaped radio galaxies form much more easily,” the scientist concludes.

Typically, astrophysicists observe and study galaxieselliptical in shape with twin jets that shoot out from either side of the central supermassive black hole. But in less than 10% of cases, scientists find rare X-shaped radio galaxies with four jets that extend far into space.

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