Dead X-ray satellite reveals “quiet” center of massive galaxy cluster
At the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster — a swarm of thousands of galaxies that spans 2 million light years across and is one of the most massive known objects in the universe — a black hole is attempting to stir things up, blowing giant bubbles and jets and ripples of gas out into the galactic plasma. However, scientists from the Hitomi Collaboration, including researchers from MIT, have found that, despite the black hole’s efforts, the core of the cluster is surprisingly “quiet,” meaning the plasma surrounding the central black hole is not swirling around nearly as fast as scientists had suspected. To be exact, the scientists observed that the gas at the center of the galaxy cluster is moving at a velocity of 164 kilometers per second, or about 366,000 miles per hour — positively pokey compared to the galaxies and stars within the cluster, which are thought to travel...