Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery that’s rewriting our understanding of cosmic powerhouses. A relatively nearby microquasar called V4641 Sagittarii, 20,000 light-years from Earth, has been found to produce gamma rays with unprecedented energy levels – up to 200 teraelectronvolts (TeV), exceeding visible light by 200 trillion times.
Located in the constellation Sagittarius, this binary system consists of a six-mass-Sun black hole feeding on a neighboring star. The intense radiation is produced as the black hole devours its stellar companion’s material, with energies previously thought to originate only from distant quasars.
The discovery was made possible by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory, which uses massive tanks filled with purified water to detect high-energy particles streaking through our atmosphere. The HAWC’s wide-angle view allowed physicist Xiaojie Wang to notice an anomaly in a previously quiet region of the sky.
Wang’s team found that V4641 Sagittarii was emitting gamma rays at unprecedented energy levels, defying previous understanding of microquasars. This discovery has significant implications for our understanding of black holes and cosmic processes.
The findings suggest that even smaller black holes can act as extreme energy accelerators, previously attributed only to larger systems. Microquasars like V4641 Sagittarii also provide a way to study high-energy particle acceleration at an accelerated pace, allowing scientists to observe complex physics in a more accessible manner.
Source: https://dailygalaxy.com/2024/11/new-cosmic-accelerator-found-nearby-galaxy