The region near a black hole is one of the most extreme environments in the Universe, but historically it’s been hard to study directly. Using the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR telescopes, astronomers have measured the rotation of gas near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy. They found that this black hole is spinning nearly as fast as it can be, and that the matter orbiting the black hole is similarly moving near the speed of light—to the extent that the results of Einstein’s general relativity must be used to understand how it’s moving. The key measurement involved observing X-rays reflected off the matter whirling around the black hole, a significant observation of a relativistic phenomenon.

A new X-ray observation of the region surrounding the supermassive black hole in the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy may have answered one of the big questions. G. Risaliti and colleagues found the distinct signature of X-rays reflecting off gas orbiting the black hole at nearly the speed of light. The detailed information the astronomers gleaned allowed them to rule out some explanations for the bright X-ray emission, bringing us closer to an understanding of the extreme environment near these gravitational engines. [Read more…]