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NeVe 1

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NeVe 1
Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the Ophiuchus Cluster, with NeVe 1 being the bright, purple spot.
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
ConstellationOphiuchus
Right ascension17h 12m 27.74s[1]
Declination−23° 22′ 10.8″[1]
Redshift0.02846[1]
Heliocentric radial velocity8530.9 km/s[1]
Distance411.2 Mly (126.08 Mpc)[1]
(comoving distance)
Group or clusterOphiuchus Cluster
Apparent magnitude (V)not visible
Characteristics
TypeE, cD[1]
Size~331,800 ly (101.74 kpc) (estimated) [1]
Notable featuresHost galaxy of the Ophiuchus Supercluster eruption
Other designations
WISEA J171227.81-232210.7; 2MASX J17122774-2322108[1]

NeVe 1 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy located in the Ophiuchus Cluster region, about 411 million light-years away from Earth behind the Zone of Avoidance region of the sky. It was notable for being the host galaxy of the Ophiuchus Supercluster eruption, the most energetic astronomical event known.[2][3][4]

Observation history

Despite being in the relatively nearby, large Ophiuchus Cluster, due to its location behind the Milky Way galactic disc relative to the Earth's perspective (known as the Zone of Avoidance), the majority of the cluster including NeVe 1 are invisible to the naked eye, such that it can only be observed in wavelengths beyond the visible spectrum, such as X-rays and infrared.

When initially observed in 1991 it was first identified as a planetary nebula within the large, star-forming Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.[5] It was then given the designation NeVe 1, from the New Evolved Planetary Nebulae Catalog for the Southern Hemisphere. In a subsequent survey using six films from the ESO/SERC Sky Survey Atlas, at least 4,100 galaxies including NeVe 1 were identified.[6] This was further attested by the detection of luminous X-ray and radio emission in NeVe 1 that is indicative of an active galactic nucleus.[7] Thus, NeVe 1 has been truly identified not as a nearby planetary nebula from a dying star, but a full-fledged giant galaxy lying beyond the Milky Way.

Characteristics

NeVe 1's location in the sky behind the plane of the Milky Way makes it very difficult to study in the optical wavelengths. Using near-infrared and X-ray measurements it is shown to be a large elliptical galaxy - probably one of the largest such galaxies near the Milky Way, with the diameter twice that of Messier 87.[1] Observations using the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2012 revealed that NeVe 1 sits at the center of a comet-like structure of its host cluster, indicative of ram-pressure stripping and the merger of at least two smaller subclusters. This enormous structure may have slowed down the velocity of NeVe 1 via the interaction of its stars and dark matter The head of the structure sits about 4 kiloparsecs (13,000 light-years) from NeVe 1 and the galaxy itself is classified as a cooling core with high X-ray emission in contrast to the hot, intracluster medium of the Ophiuchus Cluster.[8]

Eruption

In a paper published in 2020, NeVe 1 and its surrounding region has been identified as an extreme example of a giant radio fossil - with structures indicative of a much more violent AGN activity in the past..[9] In the case of NeVe 1 there is a striking X-ray concave arc terminating the bubble of expanding gas, with the diameter of at least 230 kpc (1.5 million light years) flowing out of the galaxy, with smaller mini-lobes that may be a result of further, smaller activity of its AGN.[9] This structure is visible as an enormous cavity, a void region of the intracluster medium.

The creation of such an enormous cavity could be explained by an extraordinarily large AGN outburst from NeVe 1. Assuming that the cavity and NeVe 1 are roughly in the same radial orientation relative to Earth, the energy required to create the cavity (factoring in the density of the intracluster medium of the Ophiuchus Cluster that resist and must be displaced by the expansion), would be on the order of 5×1061 ergs of energy.[9] This violent outburst, likely to have happened no less than 240 million years before, is the Ophiuchus Supercluster eruption - the most energetic astronomical event known.[2][3][4] It was five times more powerful than the outburst at the galaxy cluster MS 0735.6+7421, and 5.7 million times more powerful than GRB 080916C - the most energetic gamma-ray burst known. Such an equivalent amount of energy could supply the Earth's global energy consumption for the next 1×1034 years - near the end of the Degenerate Era of the Universe.

The outburst has been attested to have been generated by NeVe 1's central supermassive black hole which may have consumed an equivalent of 270 million solar masses of material that generated shock waves and relativistic jets of high-energy particles that displaced the intracluster medium to form the cavity.[10][11] The eruption may have lasted for several million years and released as much energy equivalent to thousands of gamma-ray bursts per year.

The question remains as to how the still extant cool core of NeVe 1 would have survived such a cataclysmic activity, which would have completely destroyed the core. It has been suggested that the eruption may be the result of some form of large-scale hydrodynamic activity within the intracluster medium, allowing it to distribute the energy by a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability eddy allowing the core to survive.[9] Such structures have been found in the similar Perseus Cluster and its galaxy NGC 1275.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for WISEA J171227.81-232210.7. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  2. ^ a b "Ophiuchus Galaxy Cluster". NASA. 27 February 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Chandra Press Room :: Most Powerful Eruption in the Universe Discovered :: January 5, 2005". chandra.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  4. ^ a b "The AGN Outburst we won't call an explosion and a rock around the Earth | The Daily Space". Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  5. ^ Acker, A.; Marcout, J.; Ochsenbein, F.; Steinholm, B.; Tylenda, R.; Schohn, C. (1992). "The Strasbourg-ESO Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae. Parts I, II". Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union: 1047. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-2088-3_510.1007/978-94-011-2088-3_5. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  6. ^ Hasegawa, T.; Wakamatsu, K.; Malkan, M.; Sekiguchi, K.; Menzies, J.W.; Parker, Q.A.; Jugaku, J.; Karoji, H.; Okamura, S. (1 August 2000). "Large-scale structure of galaxies in the Ophiuchus region". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 316 (2): 326–344. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03531.x. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  7. ^ Pérez-Torres, M.A.; Zandanel, F.; Guerrero, M.A.; Pal, S.; Profumo, S.; Prada, F.; Panessa, F. (1 July 2009). "The origin of the diffuse non-thermal X-ray and radio emission in the Ophiuchus cluster of galaxies". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 396 (4): 2237–2248. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14883.x. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  8. ^ Million, E.T.; Allen, S.W.; Werner, N.; Taylor, G.B. (23 June 2010). "Ram-pressure stripping of the cool core of the Ophiuchus Cluster". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 405 (3): 1624–1633. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16596.x. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d Giacintucci, S.; Markevitch, M.; Johnston-Hollitt, M.; Wik, D. R.; Wang, Q. H. S.; Clarke, T. E. (4 February 2020). "Discovery of a giant radio fossil in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster". The Astrophysical Journal. 891 (1): 1. arXiv:2002.01291. Bibcode:2020ApJ...891....1G. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab6a9d. S2CID 211020555.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  10. ^ Werner, N.; Zhuravleva, I.; Canning, R. E. A.; Allen, S. W.; King, A. L.; Sanders, J. S.; Simionescu, A.; Taylor, G. B.; Morris, R. G.; Fabian, A. C. (August 2016). "Deep Chandra study of the truncated cool core of the Ophiuchus cluster". MNRAS. 460 (3): 2752–2764. Bibcode:2016MNRAS.460.2752W. doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1171. ISSN 0035-8711.
  11. ^ "Universe's Most Powerful Black Hole Eruption Spotted | Astronomy | Sci-News.com". Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com. Retrieved 2020-12-09.

See also

  • MS 0735.6+7421 - galaxy cluster whose eruption was the previously known most energetic astronomical event

Category:Elliptical galaxies Category:Ophiuchus (constellation) Category:Astronomical objects discovered in 1991 Category:X-ray astronomy Category:Astronomical X-ray sources

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