Scientists now able to detect winds travelling between galaxies, experts from Brno contributed
Between galaxies in the universe, winds blow, made up of a stream of intergalactic gas particles. These have been described in detail for the first time by an international team of scientists, including astrophysicists from Masaryk University in Brno. The study has been published in the latest issue of the prestigious scientific journal, Nature.
The so-called galactic atmosphere has been studied by the scientific community for decades. Norbert Werner from the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University explained the phenomenon to Czech Radio:
"Intergalactic gas is extremely rare and difficult to observe. However, thanks to the Japanese XRISM satellite, we can now measure the velocities of this gas. Previously, we could determine its temperature, density, and pressure, but we had no way of knowing how it moved."
The new satellite aimed its X-ray telescope at a cluster of galaxies in the Centaurus constellation – which sent back a reply. The gas particles flow much like wind on Earth, except much faster. Scientists have recorded speeds of 100 to 300 kilometers per second.
This wind, they say, blows matter between galaxies, so nothing clumps together or forms stars there. Researchers now want to find out how the wind is formed and what role so-called supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies play in this phenomenon.
These, according to Martin Jelínek of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Astronomy, are especially large black holes, with a mass several million times our own Sun, which produce radiation and ejection of plasma mass. Experts would also like to observe this with the XRISM satellite. They have been waiting for data like this for a long time. Norbert Werner continues:
"This detector first flew into space in 1999, but the satellite exploded. Then, in 2005, another Japanese satellite carrying a copy of this detector was launched, but it leaked cooling material, so it was unsuccessful again. The next attempt was in 2016, when the satellite observed a single target—a cluster of galaxies in Perseus—but it eventually broke apart."
Scientists are now hoping that the current fourth attempt will be in service observing the universe for at least five years.
