LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31 -- The existence of large numbers of molecules in winds powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies has puzzled astronomers more than a decade. New theory predicts that molecules in black hole winds are not survivors of the heat of the energetic outflows at all, but brand-new molecules.
Molecules trace the coldest parts of space, and black holes are the most energetic phenomena in the universe, so finding molecules in black hole winds was like discovering ice in a furnace.
Researchers in Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Exploration in Astrophysics (CIERA) predict that these molecules are born in the winds with unique properties that enable them to adapt to and thrive in the hostile environment.
The theory, published in the current issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is the work of Lindheimer post-doctoral fellow Alexander Richings, who developed the computer code that, for the first time, modeled the detailed chemical processes that occur in interstellar gas accelerated by radiation emitted during the growth of supermassive black holes.
"When a black hole wind sweeps up gas from its host galaxy, the gas is heated to high temperatures, which destroy any existing molecules," Richings was quoted as saying in a statement. "By modeling the molecular chemistry in computer simulations of black hole winds, we found that this swept-up gas can subsequently cool and form new molecules."
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