Researchers detect 30% light speed winds from WISSH13 black hole
Researchers have just found ultra-fast winds blasting out of the supermassive black hole WISSH13, which sits in a super-bright quasar from about two billion years after the Big Bang.
These winds zoom along at up to 30% of the speed of light and are powered by the black hole gobbling up matter.
This action messes with star-forming gas and helps control how galaxies grow during a time called "cosmic noon," when galaxies and black holes were popping up everywhere.
XMM-Newton NuSTAR find WISSH13 wind layers
With help from the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR telescopes, scientists discovered that WISSH13 has two separate wind layers: a fast inner stream close to the black hole's disk, and a slower outer layer farther out, forming what they call a "spine and sheath" structure.
Because this study focused on a non-lensed quasar (no magnification tricks), it gives us a clearer look at how black holes shape their galaxies and even influence the bigger picture of our universe.