Black Hole's 20,000,000 MPH Wind

Earlier this year, astronomers working with NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory reported an interesting phenomenon around the black hole IGR J17091 -- a 20 million mph wind.

Contrary to popular belief, black holes don't indiscriminately suck in every last ray of light. Around larger, so-called super-massive black holes, such as those at the centers of active galactic nuclei, magnetic fields in the accretion disks can excite and heat up in-falling matter in such a way that it creates jets that shoot forth from the poles, as seen in the image of the elliptical galaxy M87, below. Smaller black holes have also been shown to occasionally emit these relativistic jets.

Credit: NASA/Hubble Team

The amount of matter within the black hole's wind was unexpected, though. As Ashley King, lead report author from the University of Michigan, put it, "... up to 95% of the matter in the disk around IGR 17091 is expelled by the wind." That means that it's losing far more matter than it's consuming.

Not only is the wind loaded with matter, the 20 million mph speed is generally only seen around the much larger super-massive black holes, which surprised many scientists studying this system.

One of the other surprises of IGR 17091 is that the stellar wind and jets seem to alternate. In other words, sometimes the black hole is shooting off jets of charged particles from its poles, while at other times, the system is ejecting matter in several different directions. This has led some scientists to believe that the creation of the wind has some negating effect on the jets, but more research is needed to understand the mechanics.

Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Located nearly 28,000 light years away, toward the center of the Milky Way, IGR 17091 is a stellar-mass black hole, meaning the star that it formed from was probably between five and ten times more massive than our own Sun. As shown in the artist's depiction above, this particular black hole is part of a binary system, where it "feeds" from its neighbor, a relatively light-weight star about the mass of our Sun.

This may not be "breaking" news, but I just found out about it and thought I would share the information.

Martian Dust Devils

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Just west of the Solar System's largest volcano, Olympus Mons, in the plains of Amazonis Planitia, the HiRISE project on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this stunning image of a nearly kilometer-high (800m) dust devil.

The full image was taken on February 16th, 2012, at a time of the Martian year when it's near its aphelion, or farthest point from the Sun. Earth reaches its aphelion in the beginning of July.

Whirlwinds seem to be fairly common on Mars, with quite a few photos having been taken from various science instruments. The rover Spirit was able to capture multiple images in sequence on a number of occasions (.gifs enclosed).

Dust devil on Mars, captured by Spirit rover in 2005.

As on Earth, these miniature tornadoes form when sunlight warms the ground, creating a slight updraft that can, with the help of an easy breeze, mix with the cooler air above it to form a swirling column of air and dust.

Given that they are thought to be largely dependent on heat from the Sun (to power winds), researchers were reportedly surprised to see such regular activity at Mars' aphelion.

This is more evidence that Mars has many surprises left for us. It will be a great day when humans become truly interplanetary and explore our little red brother. I have hope that it will happen within my lifetime because are seeing a new generation of super-wealthy entrepreneurs that grew up on science fiction. I'm looking at you, Elon Musk and Richard Branson.

My Passion is Knowledge

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan

As an introductory post, I feel as if I should say a few things about myself.

My name is Zen Wolfang, I live in Seattle and I (officially) study astronomy. When I'm not reading up on physical concepts or gazing at the night sky, my time is spent learning more about the world around us, in fields ranging from biology to robotics to psychology.

There is an incredible amount to learn and we have never been as well-equipped to process that glut as we are now. I feel privileged to live in the 21st century, where we have devices in our pockets that can bring us nearly every iota of information that mankind has ever collected (save for that lost during catastrophes such as the destruction of the Library of Alexandria).

One of the truly wonderful things about that is not only the novelty, but how widespread it has all become in the last decade. In some of the most under-developed countries on the planet, average citizens are utilizing mobile technology to build new and more prosperous lives for themselves and their communities.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be filling this blog space with things that I've learned in my life and my perspectives on exciting current events in the realms of science and technology. I certainly hope you find yourself as awestruck by some of this as I do.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a message/philosophy that has recently struck a chord with me, in the form of the following image:

The Scientist's Manifesto, mrbazooka