Japan’s new X-ray telescope shares details about black holes and supernovae

Less than a year after its launch, Japan’s X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) has delivered its first results, providing crucial information about black holes and supernova remnants. XRISM is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The observations have revealed the structure, motion and temperature of the material around a supermassive black hole, and the dynamics of a supernova remnant. These findings represent a major step towards understanding the behaviour of the most extreme environments in the Universe.

Discoveries of supermassive black holes

One of the mission’s first targets was the supermassive black hole at the centre of the NGC 4151 galaxy, located 62 million light-years away, according to an ESA report. after. This black hole has a mass 30 million times that of the sun. The XRISM telescope observed the plasma swirling around it at a distance of about 0.1 light-years, moving inward to 0.001 light-years before falling into the black hole.

By focusing on the X-ray signature of iron atoms, scientists identified key structures around the black hole, such as the accretion disk and a surrounding gas and dust torus. This detailed observation has provided new insights into how supermassive black holes consume surrounding matter.

Discovery of supernova remnants

XRISM also studied a supernova remnant, N132D, in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This material was ejected from a massive star about 3,000 years ago. The telescope’s observations revealed that the debris was expanding in a non-uniform, doughnut-shaped structure, rather than the spherical shell previously thought.

The plasma is expanding at a speed of 2.6 million miles per hour, with a temperature of 10 billion degrees Celsius. These results provide crucial clues about how elements formed in supernovae are scattered through space and recycled into new stars. The early results demonstrate the powerful capabilities of XRISM, with more discoveries expected from 104 future observing programs.